Coupling of an SPH-based solver with a multiphysics library

Financiado para publicación en acceso aberto: Universidade de Vigo/CISUGA two-way coupling between the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics-based (SPH) code with a multiphysics library to solve complex fluid-solid interaction problems is proposed. This work provides full access to the package for the use of this coupling by releasing the source code, completed with guidelines for its compilation and utilization, and self-contained template setups for practical uses of the novel implemented features, is provided here. The presented coupling expands the applicability of two different solvers allowing to simulate fluids, multibody systems, collisions with frictional contacts using either non-smooth contact (NSC) or smooth contact (SMC) methods, all integrated under the same framework. The fluid solver is the open-source code DualSPHysics, highly optimised for simulating free-surface phenomena and structure interactions, uniquely positioned as a general-purpose Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software with a GPU-accelerated solver. Mechanical systems that comprise collision detection and/or multibody dynamics are solved by the multiphysics library Project Chrono, which uses a Discrete Element Method (DEM). Therefore, this SPH-DEM coupling approach can manage interactions between fluid and complex multibody systems with relative constraints, springs, or mechanical joints.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación | Ref. PID2020-113245RB-I00Xunta de Galicia | Ref. ED431C 2021/44Xunta de Galicia | Ref. ED481A-2021/337Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Xunta de Galicia con fondos de la Unión Europea NextGenerationEU y el Fondo Europeo Marítimo y de Pesca | Ref. PRTR-C17.I

DualSPHysics: open-source parallel CFD solver based on Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH)

DualSPHysics is a hardware accelerated Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics code developed to solve free-surface flow problems. DualSPHysics is an open-source code developed and released under the terms of GNU General Public License (GPLv3). Along with the source code, a complete documentation that makes easy the compilation and execution of the source files is also distributed. The code has been shown to be efficient and reliable. The parallel power computing of Graphics Computing Units (GPUs) is used to accelerate DualSPHysics by up to two orders of magnitude compared to the performance of the serial version.Research Councils UK (RCUK)Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad | Ref. BIA2012-38676-C03-03Xunta de Galici

Efficiency and survivability of a floating oscillating water column wave energy converter moored to the seabed : an overview of the EsflOWC MaRINET2 database

Floating oscillating water column (OWC) type wave energy converters (WECs), compared to fixed OWC WECs that are installed near the coastline, can be more effective as they are subject to offshore waves before the occurrence of wave dissipation at a nearshore location. The performance of floating OWC WECs has been widely studied using both numerical and experimental methods. However, due to the complexity of fluid–structure interaction of floating OWC WECs, most of the available studies focus on 2D problems with WEC models of limited degrees-of-freedom (DOF) of motion, while 3D mooring effects and multiple-DOF OWC WECs have not been extensively investigated yet under 2D and 3D wave conditions. Therefore, in order to gain a deeper insight into these problems, the present study focuses on wave flume experiments to investigate the motion and mooring performance of a scaled floating OWC WEC model under 2D wave conditions. As a preparatory phase for the present MaRINET2 EsflOWC (efficiency and survivability of floating OWC) project completed at the end of 2017, experiments were also carried out in advance in the large wave flume of Ghent University. The following data were obtained during these experimental campaigns: multiple-DOF OWC WEC motions, mooring line tensions, free surface elevations throughout the wave flume, close to and inside the OWC WEC, change in the air pressure inside the OWC WEC chamber and velocity of the airflow through the vent on top of the model. The tested wave conditions mostly include nonlinear intermediate regular waves. The data obtained at the wave flume of Ghent University, together with the data from the EsflOWC tests at the wave flume of LABIMA, University of Florence, provide a database for numerical validation of research on floating OWC WECs and floating OWC WEC farms or arrays used by researchers worldwide

A numerical tool for modelling oscillating wave surge converter with nonlinear mechanical constraints

Wave surge converter (OWSC) devices. The key novelty of this paper is a numerical simulation tool for OWSCs that does not neglect or significantly compromise mechanical constraints such as hydraulic power take-off (PTO) system, revolute joints and frictional contacts among components. The paper is aimed at presenting the key components of the numerical simulation tool and at validating it with laboratory data featuring an OWSC with mechanical constraints under regular and irregular waves. It is based on the implementation of the multibody solver of Project Chrono under the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) model of DualSPHysics, where the SPH solver resolves the interaction between wave and flap and the multibody solver resolves the interaction between flap and mechanical constraints. Comparison between numerical results and experimental data show that the numerical simulation tool properly predicts the dynamics of the OWSC. Furthermore, in what concerns hydrodynamics of the near-flap flow, the computed and measured free-surface elevations and phase-averaged flow field show reasonable agreement. Once properly validated, the numerical simulation tool is then applied to study the influence of several mechanical constraints, PTO damping characteristics and flap inertia on the hydrodynamic of the OWSC. The viability of OWSC design solutions based on the developed numerical simulation tool is emphasised, in view of its performance in the test cases to which it was subjected.Agencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. ENE2016-75074-C2-1-RFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia | Ref. PD/BD/705970/201

Numerical modelling of a point‐absorbing WEC model using DualSPHysics coupled with a multiphysics library

The aim of this work is to present the capabilities of the meshless numerical model named DualSPHysics, which coupled with a multiphysics library, is able to reproduce the interaction between waves and a floating wave energy converter (WEC). This is a challenging problem to be simulated with a numerical model since it includes not only the non-linear wave-structure interaction, but also the mechanical constraints of the floating WEC. DualSPHysics, which is a SPH-based code, is herein coupled with the Chrono library. This library is developed as a general-purpose simulation package for multi-body problems. The library is implemented under the DualSPHysics code, providing an integrated interface to define and run arbitrarily defined fluid-structure-structure coupled systems under the same framework. The DualSPHysics-Chrono coupled model was already validated for fluid-structure-structure interaction cases and it is here applied to simulate a floating point absorber. The model-scale WEC was designed and tested in MASK basin. The WEC is independently actuated in heave, surge, and pitch (all the degrees of freedom in a single plane). Tests have been conducted for the investigation of control to improve power generation and load reduction and to study system identification (SID) and model validation. Some of those tests are here reproduced with the proposed numerical tool. Numerical forces exerted by monochromatic waves onto the floating point absorber are compared with the experimental data and good agreement is observed. Therefore, DualSPHysics-Chrono is proposed as a design tool to improve the efficiency and survivability of this 1672-WHM This work was supported in part by Xunta de Galicia under project