Numerical Simulation of Wave Interaction With Moving Net Structures

Fluid structure interaction is an important issue in design of many engineering systems including offshore fish cages. As a first step to develop a coupled CFD/FEM model, in the present study a moving porous media model has been developed in the open source library OpenFOAM. The net structure was described as a sheet of porous media with prescribed rigid body motion and mesh motion was incorporated to conform the motion of the net. Free surface wave generation and absorption framework was also introduced to simulate wave interaction with moving net structures. The results showed that mesh motion solver was coupled with free surface wave generation and absorption framework and porous media model flawlessly, and the deformed mesh remained acceptable. It was concluded that Laplace mesh motion solver with inversed quadratic diffusivity model was an appropriate option for simulating wave interaction with moving net structures.