6DOF RANS Simulations of Floating and

Submerged Bodies using OpenFOAM

Eric Paterson, David Boger, Kevin Smith, Scott Miller, and Gina Casadei Hrvoje Jasak
Applied Research Laboratory, Penn State Univ, State College, PA, USA Wikki Ltd., London, UK
12th Numerical Towing Tank Symposium, Cortona, Italy
4-6 October 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
 Objectives
• Develop Multiphase CFD Tools for
Naval Hydrodynamics using
OpenFOAM

• Resistance and propulsion

• Bubbly wakes

• Seakeeping

• Wave-impact and green-water-on-

deck forces

• Multi-body problems

Monday, October 5, 2009

 Approach
• OpenFOAM
• ~4 years of experience at PSU/ARL
• Initial validation efforts performed as part of student theses
• Now being used for real-world design, analysis, and acquisition
programs
• Development of overset methods: foamedOver
• Why OpenFOAM?
• Open-source, extensible C++, code architecture, existing
models and algorithms
➯ Capability for multi-physics simulations and custom solvers
• world-wide user base (2500+ users)

Monday, October 5, 2009

 rasInterDyMFoam
Tool for Seakeeping, Ship motions, Wave Loads

Large-amplitude Propulsion and

Free Surface
6DOF Motions Control Surfaces

Mesh Motion EOM Wave Model VOF/LS Outflow B.C. Body-force Direct Sim

•Dynamic mesh •Quarternions •Regular waves •High-pass: Advective •Actuator disk •GGI
•GGI •Euler angles •Irregular waves •Low-pass: Sponge Layer •BEM •Overset
•Overset •Short crested •3D RANS
waves

Monday, October 5, 2009

 rasInterDyMFoam
• rasInterFoam extended for dynamic Mesh

• forces and moments include buoyancy (floatingBody class)

• equations of motion formulated using quaternions

(sixDOFqODE class)

• 13 variables (linear displacement from Earth-fixed

system (3), linear velocity (3), rotational velocity (3),
quaternions (4))

• Runge-Kutta ODE solver

Monday, October 5, 2009

 Wigley Hull

Transient solver: rasInterFoam

runTime ~ 5 hrs
Mesh: 286,000 cells, y ~ 100
+
numProc = 4
2500 Δt for a converged solution
Monday, October 5, 2009
 Bare-hull Model 5415

• Navy surface combatant ca. 1980.

• Sonar dome and transom stern, propulsion
is provided through twin open-water
propellers driven by shafts supported by
struts
• CFD Validation Database
• Used at the Gothenburg 2000, Tokyo
2005, Gothenburg 2010 workshops
Monday, October 5, 2009
 Bare-hull Model 5415
• Grid
• Pointwise
• ~5M hex cells,
• y+ ~ 100
• Simulation
• 128 processors on
4400-core
Woodcrest cluster
• OF compiled with
icc, linked to
optimized MPI
Monday, October 5, 2009
 Bare-hull Model 5415
• Grid
• Pointwise
• ~5M hex cells,
• y+ ~ 100
• Simulation
• 128 processors on
4400-core
Woodcrest cluster Transient solver: rasInterFoam
• OF compiled with Δt ~ 1x10-4 (Co = 0.7)
icc, linked to
optimized MPI ➙ 30,000 time steps for a steady
solution!! Unacceptable.
Monday, October 5, 2009
 LES of Free-surface flows
Froude number = 1.0 Froude number = 2.0

Monday, October 5, 2009

 0.05 0.05

Mean wave elevation and axial velocity

0 -0.1
-0.2 -0.2
0 -0.06 0

(b) Fr
(c) Fr == 2.0
1.0 (c) Fr = 2.0
-0.1
0.2 -0.15
0.2
0.
05
yy (m)

y (m)
(m)

0
0.125

0
0 0

0
0.075 -0 . -0 .
0.3

0.3
85 85
0.2 0.2
-0.75 -0.75
0.05
-0.2 -0.2
0 -0.6 -0.6

0
0

0.1 0.1

-0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6

(c) Fr = 2.0 x (m) x (m)
0.2
y (m)

0
0
-0 .
0.3

85
0.2
-0.75

-0.2
-0.6
0

0.1

-0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6

x (m)

Monday, October 5, 2009

 Wave models

• Models required to generate

waves
• regular waves, deep and
shallow water Regular waves

• irregular waves and wave

spectra models
• short-crested or directional
waves Irregular seaway

Monday, October 5, 2009

 groovyWaveTank
http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/Contrib_groovyBC#User-Cases

groovyWaveTank with nonzero forward speed (or current)

Monday, October 5, 2009

 groovyWaveBasin
atmosphere

advective

U
s
ave
Uw

groovyBC
Monday, October 5, 2009
 groovyWaveBasin
input for U
{
type groovyBC;
refValue uniform (0 0 0);
refGradient uniform (0 0 0);
valueFraction uniform 1;
value uniform (1 0 0);
valueExpression "(pos().z<=A*cos(k*pos().x*cos(betaRad)+k*pos().y*sin(betaRad)-we*time())) ? vector(Us+cos
(betaRad)*(A*w*exp(k*pos().z)*cos(k*pos().x*cos(betaRad)+k*pos().y*sin(betaRad)-we*time())), sin(betaRad)*
(A*w*exp(k*pos().z)*cos(k*pos().x*cos(betaRad)+k*pos().y*sin(betaRad)-we*time())), A*w*exp(k*pos().z)*sin(k*pos
().x*cos(betaRad)+k*pos().y*sin(betaRad)-we*time())) : vector(1,0,0)";
gradientExpression "vector(0,0,0)";
fractionExpression "(phi > 0) ? 0 : 1";
variables "l=1;A=0.05;Us=1;beta=45;betaRad=2.*pi*45.0/360.0;g=vector(0,0,-9.81);k=2*pi/l;w=sqrt(k*mag
(g));we=w+k*Us*cos(betaRad);";
timelines ();
}

This is probably the limit: more complexity ➙ custom BC

Monday, October 5, 2009
 Outflow b.c.

• Two approaches used in tandem:

• advection BC:
• high-pass filter, best for filtering long
waves
• ineffective for zero forward speed, but
good for other cases
• Numerical beach: low-pass filter, best for
damping short waves

Monday, October 5, 2009

 Numerical beach
∂ρU
+ ∇ · (ρUU) = −∇p + ∇ · µ∇U + ρg − σκn − νd (x)ργU
∂t

• νd is a scalar dissipation function

• Zero everywhere except in the sponge layer region
• νd(x) defined as a cubic (Clement, 1996)
• Grid expansion is also effective at filtering short waves

Monday, October 5, 2009

 Numerical beach

• Studied numerous lengths and magnitudes.

• Evaluated by defining a reflection coefficient

No Sponge Layer νd,max = 6, L = 4 νd,max = 100, L = 4

Monday, October 5, 2009

 Surface-piercing cyclinder in waves
zero Forward speed

Monday, October 5, 2009

 Wigley Hull in waves
nonzero Forward speed

Monday, October 5, 2009

 Wigley Hull in waves
response of boundary layer & wake

Monday, October 5, 2009

 Wave impact loads
• Wave impact pressure on block
• Experiment done at NSWCCD (Fullerton et al., 2009)
– Breaking and non-breaking waves tested
– Block face and angle varied
– Data taken from slam panels and pressure gages
– Pressures and forces taken relative to calm water level
– Average load of 75 to 150 wave impacts

Monday, October 5, 2009

 Wave impact loads

EFD data

Monday, October 5, 2009

 Prescribed motions
Tumblehome geometry 2D midship slice

Monday, October 5, 2009

 Roll damping & wave-excited roll
Wave parameters: λ = 1.56 m, H = 0.044 m
 Results: Damping Factor ζ
 CFD BR: 0.0877
 CFD No BR: 0.0980
 Experiment: 0.106
 Bilge radius reduces damping
 Sources of error
 2D approximation
 Experimental setup has more
damping due to friction at fixed axis of
barge

Monday, October 5, 2009

 foamedOver
• Overset meshing requires the following
modifications to a CFD solver
– Blank out regions of the mesh
– Interpolation of fringe and outer boundary cells from
donor meshes (tri-linear interpolation)
– Modification of algebraic solvers (Hard part)
• Breaks symmetry of pressure Poisson equation. Solution:
PETSc GMRES solver
• Momentum and turbulence solved with 2-stage Jacobi
• Future work: modify OpenFOAM solvers (GAMG, PGC,
BiCGStab, etc.) and compare to PETSc solvers

Monday, October 5, 2009

 rasInterDyMFoam
OpenFOAM PETSc libraries libSuggar++ and
libraries (ANL) DiRTlib (PSU/ARL)
(OpenCFD) OpenSource data structures OpenSource Overset Tools
OpenSource CFD Toolbox and solvers

foamedOver
libraries custom libraries
Interface between waves b.c., floatingBody class
OpenFOAM - PETSc -
libSuggar++/DiRTlib

Monday, October 5, 2009

 foamedOver

• start with potentialFoam potential field

• 4 new lines of code to create

oversetPotentialFoam
■ include "oversetObject.H
■ include "createOverset.H" which
instantiates the oversetObject object
■ add oversetOperations.swapValues(p) after
pEqn.solve() to update the fringe values
■ add oversetOperations.blankEquations
(pEqn,p) to modify the equations

Monday, October 5, 2009

 foamedOver
oversetSimpleFoam
– 6 lines of new code required to link with foamedOver library

pressure field velocity field

Monday, October 5, 2009

 foamedOver
oversetRasInterFoam
– 7 lines of new code required to link with foamedOver library

gamma field pressure field

Monday, October 5, 2009

3DOF rising buoyant body
Overset

capsize of floating box

GGI

Monday, October 5, 2009

 Conclusions
• Different CFD formulations required for various aspects of Ship
Hydrodynamics

• Steady VOF - URANS - LES/DES - vehicle motions: all have unique

challenges

• interFoam-class solvers work well for transient problems such as wave

propagation, wave slap, wave forces

• Develop work required to stitch everything together

• Boundary-condition formulation for oblique/beam/trailing seas needs

attention

• Overset has been implemented and tested. Needs to be compared to

GGI/dynamic mesh for seakeeping simulations

Monday, October 5, 2009

 Overset Symposium
www.oversetsymposium.org

9th Symposium (2008):

Penn State University

10th Symposium (2010):

NASA Ames, CA

Monday, October 5, 2009

 OpenFOAM Ship Hydro SIG
http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/Sig_Ship_Hydrodynamics

Monday, October 5, 2009

 OpenFOAM Workshop

• 1st Workshop (2006):

Zagreb, Croatia

• 2nd Workshop (2007):

Zagreb, Croatia

• 3rd Workshop (2008):

Milan, Italy

• 4th Workshop (2009):

Montreal, Canada

• 5th Workshop (2010):

Gothenburg, Sweden

Monday, October 5, 2009