Validation Study for Free-Surface Wave Flows Around Surface-Piercing Cylindrical Structures

The present study is concerned with the free-surface wave flows around surface-piercing cylindrical structures. The volume of fluid method implemented in a Navier-Stokes computational fluid dynamics code is employed for test cases that involve general ship waves, spilling breaking waves, bubbly free-surface in separated regions, and interaction between free-surface waves and underlying viscous flow. The computational results are validated against existing experimental data, showing good agreement. The validation results suggest that the present computational approach provides a tool that is flexible and accurate enough to capture the outstanding flow physics associated with the free-surface wave flows around surface-piercing cylindrical structures.