Numerical simulation of hydrodynamics of a circular disk oscillating near a seabed

This paper studies how the hydrodynamics coefficients of added mass and damping varies when an oscillating disk approaches a seabed. Analysis was performed by OpenFOAM code using the 'PIMPLE' algorithm. The simulations considered the flow as laminar and hence no turbulence model was used. Simulations were conducted for a solid disk of 200 mm diameter, 2 mm thick, oscillating at amplitudes varying from 1-48 mm and elevation 'h' of the disk from the seabed varying from 0.2 - 2 times the disk radius. The geometry and parameters used here were the same as that of Wadhwa et al. (2010) [1] and Vu et al. (2008) [2]. The forces on the disk were calculated using a Tool for post-processing force/lift/drag data with function tool available in OpenFOAM. The motions of the disk were restricted to axial (heave) direction. The calculated forces and displacement were analyzed using a Fourier projection to separate the added mass and damping effects. Numerical results were compared with the experiments conducted by Wadhwa et al. (2010) [1] with a sandy bottom. Results show that the added mass and damping increase monotonically with the Keulegan-Carpenter number (KC) up to a critical value, beyond which the behavior becomes random. The critical KC increases linearly with increasing distance from the seabed. The hydrodynamic problem has important applications in structures such as foundation templates and subsea structures oscillating in proximity to the seabed. The computations show vortex lines of the flow, and the influence of the seabed on the flow around the structure.