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Poisson equation lies in the heart of the numerical solutions of incompressible Navier–Stokes equations (NSEs) based on the popular projection methods, which decouple the pressure and velocities fields. This paper presents enhanced numerical solutions of the 2D incompressible NSEs inspired by a newly-developed Generalized Harmonic Polynomial Cell (GHPC) method for the Poisson equation, which has a fourth-order spatial accuracy. To achieve that, the original GHPC method is adapted to accommodate immersed boundaries, necessary when a staggered grid for velocities and pressure is applied. The finite difference method (FDM) is used in the spatial discretization of the diffusion and advection terms. Numerical analyses of lid-driven cavity flow, a Taylor–Green vortex, and flow around a smooth circular cylinder all show encouraging results, confirming the accuracy and efficiency of the new solver. Through comparison with an NSEs solver which applies second-order FDM for the Poisson equation, we demonstrate that the accuracy of the pressure solution can be greatly improved by applying the more accurate GHPC method for the Poisson equation, even though the accuracy of the velocities solutions are limited by the numerical schemes for advection–diffusion equations. The accuracy in the pressure solution can also be translated into CPU time saving to achieve a predefined accuracy. The present immersed-boundary GHPC Poisson equation solver can easily be ‘plugged’ into other existing NSEs solvers utilizing staggered grids.

Hyper-singular integral equations are often applied in the frequency-domain wave diffraction/radiation analyses of marine structures with thin plates or shell sub-structures. Their numerical solutions require the higher-order derivatives of the free-surface Green function featuring hyper-singularity, and hence the corresponding evaluation is very challenging. To circumvent the associated numerical difficulties, this paper will propose alternative formulations for the higher-order derivatives of both free-surface and Rankine-source parts of the Green function. For the free-surface term G F , the higher-order derivatives are analytically expressed by a combination of G F itself and its first-order horizontal radial derivative. Further, we derive an asymptotic representation, enabling us to deal exactly with a removable singularity in this representation. The superiority of the proposed formulation is demonstrated by comparing with a conventional direct differentiation. For the Rankine-source term, analytical expressions for the velocities induced by a uniform dipole distribution over a flat panel (involving second derivatives of the Rankine source term) are presented, which is directly relevant to numerical implementation based on constant panel methods. As illustrative examples, linear hydrodynamic coefficients of submerged circular impermeable and perforated plates are calculated for verification purposes. The proposed formulas are simple and easy to implement in the hyper-singular integral equations.

It is essential for a Navier-Stokes equations solver based on a projection method to be able to solve the resulting Poisson equation accurately and efficiently. In this paper, we present a new 2D Navier-Stokes equation solver based on a recently proposed fourth-order method, namely the generalized harmonic polynomial cell (GHPC) method, as the Poisson equation solver. The GHPC method is a generalization of the 2D HPC method originally developed for the Laplace equation. In the recent development of the HPC method, loss of accuracy on highly stretched or distorted grids has been reported when solving the Laplace equation, while the performance of the GHPC method on non-uniform grids is still not explored and discussed in the literature. Therefore, the local accuracy of the GHPC method is investigated in detail in the present study, which reveals that the GHPC method allows for the use of much larger grid aspect ratio than that for the original HPC method. Global accuracy of the GHPC method on stretched non-uniform girds is also thoroughly analyzed by considering cases with analytical solutions. Obvious advantages of using the GHPC method in terms of accuracy are demonstrated by comparing with a second-order central Finite Difference Method (FDM). The present Navier-Stokes equations solver uses second-order FDMs for the discretization of the diffusion and advection terms, which may be replaced by other higher-order schemes to further improve the accuracy. Meanwhile, an immersed boundary method [1] is used to study the fluid-structure-interaction problems. The Taylor-Green vortex and flow around a smooth circular cylinder are studied to confirm the accuracy and efficiency of the new 2D Navier-Stokes equation solver. The predictions show good agreements with the experimental and numerical results in the literature.

Achieving accurate numerical results of hydrodynamic loads based on the potential-flow theory is very challenging for structures with sharp edges, due to the singular behavior of the local-flow velocities. In this paper, we introduce, perhaps the first time in the literature on marine hydrodynamics, the Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM) to solve fluid–structure interaction problems involving sharp edges on structures. Compared with the conventional FEMs, the singular basis functions are introduced in XFEM through the local construction of shape functions of the finite elements. Four different FEM solvers, including conventional linear and quadratic FEMs as well as their corresponding XFEM versions with local enrichment by singular basis functions at sharp edges, are implemented and compared. To demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the XFEMs, a thin flat plate in an infinite fluid domain and a forced heaving rectangle at the free surface, both in two dimensions, will be studied. For the flat plate, the mesh convergence studies are carried out for both the velocity potential in the fluid domain and the added mass, and the XFEMs show apparent advantages thanks to their local enhancement at the sharp edges. Three different enrichment strategies are also compared, and suggestions will be made for the practical implementation of the XFEM. For the forced heaving rectangle, the linear and 2nd order mean wave loads are studied. Our results confirm the previous conclusion in the literature that it is not difficult for a conventional numerical model to obtain convergent results for added mass and damping coefficients. However, when the 2nd order mean wave loads requiring the computation of velocity components are calculated via direct pressure integration, the influence of singularity is significant, and it takes a tremendously large number of elements for the conventional FEMs to get convergent results. On the contrary, the numerical results of XFEMs converge rapidly even with very coarse meshes, especially for the quadratic XFEM. Unlike other methods based on domain decomposition when dealing with singularities, the FEM framework is more flexible to include the singular functions in local approximations.

Further developments and applications of the 2D harmonic polynomial cell (HPC) method proposed by Shao and Faltinsen [22] are presented. First, a local potential flow solution coupled with the HPC method and based on the domain decomposition strategy is proposed to cope with singular potential flow characteristics at sharp corners fully submerged in a fluid. The results are verified by comparing them with the analytical added mass of a double-wedge in infinite fluid. The effect of the singular potential flow is not dominant for added mass and damping, but the error is non-negligible when calculating mean wave loads using direct pressure integration. Then, the double-layer nodes technique is used to simulate a thin free shear layer shed from lifting bodies, across which the velocity potential is discontinuous. The results are verified by comparing them with analytical results for steady and unsteady lifting problems of a flat plate in infinite fluid. The latter includes the Wagner problem and the Theodorsen functions. Satisfactory agreement with other numerical results is documented for steady linear flow past a foil and beneath the free surface. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This This is the authors' accepted and refereed manuscript to the article.

This paper presents some of the efforts by the authors towards numerical prediction of springing of ships. A time-domain Higher Order Boundary Element Method (HOBEM) based on cubic shape function is first presented to solve a complete second-order problem in terms of wave steepness and ship motions in a consistent manner. In order to avoid high order derivatives on the body surfaces, e.g. mj-terms, a new formulation of the Boundary Value Problem in a body-fixed coordinate system has been proposed instead of traditional formulation in inertial coordinate system. The local steady flow effects on the unsteady waves are taken into account. Double-body flow is used as the basis flow which is an appropriate approximation for ships with moderate forward speed. This numerical model was used to estimate the complete second order wave excitation of springing of a displacement ship at constant forward speeds. Open Access funded by Society of Naval Architects of Korea. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The recently developed Harmonic Polynomial Cell (HPC) method has been proved to be a promising choice for solving potential-flow Boundary Value Problem (BVP). In this paper, a flux method is proposed to consistently deal with the Neumann boundary condition of the original HPC method and enhance the accuracy. Moreover, fixed mesh algorithm with free surface immersed is developed to improve the computational efficiency. Finally, a two dimensional (2D) multi-block strategy coupling boundary-fitted mesh and fixed mesh is proposed. It limits the computational costs and preserves the accuracy. A fully nonlinear 2D numerical wave tank is developed using the improved HPC method as a verification. Copyright © 2017 Society of Naval Architects of Korea. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license

Assuming the wave steepness of the incident waves and the ship motions are small, the second-order weakly-nonlinear hydrodynamic problem of a ship moving with constant forward speed is studied numerically in a consistent way. The boundary value problem is formulated in a body-fixed coordinate system and the perturbation scheme is used. This formulation does not include any derivatives of the velocity potential on the right-hand side of the body-boundary conditions, and thus avoid the difficulties associated with the terms similar to the so-called mj-terms and their derivatives. The second-order sum-frequency wave excitation of ship springing is studied in both monochromatic and bichromatic head-sea waves. Different Froude numbers are considered. A time-domain Higher-Order Boundary Element Method based on cubic shape function is used as a numerical tool. An upstream finite difference scheme is used for longitudinal derivative terms in the free-surface conditions. For a modified Wigley hull in head-sea waves, it is found that the second-order velocity potential gives dominant contribution to second-order wave excitation of ship springing in the wave frequency region where sum-frequency springing occurs. Quadratic velocity terms in the Bernoulli equation have a relatively small contribution. The numerical results also demonstrate strong dependency of the second-order wave excitation of ship springing on the Froude numbers for small wave lengths. The effect of beam and draft is investigated.

When a weakly nonlinear wave–body problem is considered in an inertial coordinate system, high-order derivatives appear in the higher-order body boundary conditions and make it difficult to get convergent and accurate results, especially for bodies with sharp corners or high surface curvatures. In this paper, a new method taking the advantage of the accelerated body-fixed coordinate system is proposed to avoid derivatives of the velocity potential on the right-hand side of the body boundary conditions. A domain decomposition method is applied with the use of the body-fixed coordinate system in the inner domain and the Earth-fixed coordinate system in the outer domain. The second-order radiation and diffraction of bodies with and without sharp corner are studied in the time domain and verified. A numerical beach is applied. Unlike the other methods which transfer the high-order derivatives to lower-order ones by using Stokes-like theorems, it is straightforward to generalize the present method to higher than second-order radiation problems and to the nonlinear wave–body analysis when the forward speed or current is included.

In numerical simulations with moving bodies, and often with complex geometries, generation of high-quality body-fitted grids is a cumbersome and time-consuming task. An alternative is to use a fixed (Cartesian) background grid, and allow the body to move freely over this. The challenge in such methods is to transfer the body-boundary conditions of the moving body to fixed grid nodes in a rational manner. In this paper, an Immersed Boundary Method (IBM) is proposed to simulate potential flow about a moving body on a Cartesian background grid. The recently developed Harmonic Polynomial Method, proven both accurate and computationally efficient, is used to represent the velocity potential in the fluid. The body-boundary conditions are interpolated by using ghost nodes inside the body with mirror interpolation points in the fluid. The method is first tested for a fixed cylinder in oscillatory flow to determine the accuracy of the proposed IBM, before considering the equivalent case of an oscillating cylinder in still fluid. Finally, a steadily-advancing cylinder is studied, which is considered as the most challenging case with respect to spurious pressure oscillations. These are known to be a challenge in many IBMs, and special attention is therefore devoted to this aspect.

A new numerical 2D cell method has been proposed by the authors, based on representing the velocity potential in each cell by harmonic polynomials. The method was named the harmonic polynomial cell (HPC) method. The method was later extended to 3D to study potential-flow problems in marine hydrodynamics. With the considered number of unknowns that are typical in marine hydrodynamics, the comparisons with some existing boundary element- based methods, including the fast multipole accelerated boundary element methods, showed that the HPC method is very competitive in terms of both accuracy and efficiency. The HPC method has also been applied to study fully-nonlinear wave-body interactions; for example, sloshing in tanks, nonlinear waves over different sea-bottom topographies, and nonlinear wave diffraction by a bottom-mounted vertical circular cylinder. However, no current effects were considered. In this paper, we study the fully-nonlinear time-domain wave-body interaction considering the current effects. In order to validate and verify the method, a bottom-mounted vertical circular cylinder, which has been studied extensively in the literature, will first be examined. Comparisons are made with the published numerical results and experimental results. As a further application, the HPC method will be used to study multiple bottom-mounted cylinders. An example of the wave diffraction of two bottom-mounted cylinders is also presented.

We propose a new efficient and accurate numerical method based on harmonic polynomials to solve boundary value problems governed by 3D Laplace equation. The computational domain is discretized by overlapping cells. Within each cell, the velocity potential is represented by the linear superposition of a complete set of harmonic polynomials, which are the elementary solutions of Laplace equation. By its definition, the method is named as Harmonic Polynomial Cell (HPC) method. The characteristics of the accuracy and efficiency of the HPC method are demonstrated by studying analytical cases. Comparisons will be made with some other existing boundary element based methods, e.g. Quadratic Boundary Element Method (QBEM) and the Fast Multipole Accelerated QBEM (FMA-QBEM) and a fourth order Finite Difference Method (FDM). To demonstrate the applications of the method, it is applied to some studies relevant for marine hydrodynamics. Sloshing in 3D rectangular tanks, a fully-nonlinear numerical wave tank, fully-nonlinear wave focusing on a semi-circular shoal, and the nonlinear wave diffraction of a bottom-mounted cylinder in regular waves are studied. The comparisons with the experimental results and other numerical results are all in satisfactory agreement, indicating that the present HPC method is a promising method in solving potential-flow problems. The underlying procedure of the HPC method could also be useful in other fields than marine hydrodynamics involved with solving Laplace equation. © 2014. This is the authors’ accepted and refereed manuscript to the article. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Solving potential-flow problems using the Boundary Element Method (BEM) is a strong tradition in marine hydrodynamics. An early example of the application of BEM is by Bai & Yeung [1]. The bottleneck of the conventional BEM in terms of CPU time and computer memory arises as the number of unknowns increases. Wu & Eatock Taylor [2] suggested that the Finite Element Method (FEM) field solver is much faster than the BEM based on their comparisons in a wave making problem. In this paper, we aim to find a highly efficient method to solve fully-nonlinear wave-body interaction problems based on potential-flow theory. We compare the efficiency and the accuracy of five different methods for the potential flows in two dimensions (2D), two of which are BEM-based while the other three are field solvers. The comparisons indicate that it is beneficial to use either an accelerated matrix-free BEM, e.g. Fast Multipole Method accelerated BEM (FMM-BEM), or any field solvers whose resulting matrix are sparse. Another highlight of this paper is that an efficient numerical potential-flow method named the harmonic polynomial cell (HPC) method is developed. The flow in each cell is described by a set of harmonic polynomials. The presented procedure has approximately 4th order accuracy, while its resulting matrix is sparse similarly as the other field solvers, e.g. Finite Element Method (FEM), Finite Difference Method (FDM) and Finite Volume Method (FVM). The method is verified by a linear wave making problem for which the steady-state analytical solution is available, and the forced oscillation of a semi-submerged circular cylinder for which the frequency-domain added mass and damping coefficients are compared. The fully-nonlinear wave making problem and nonlinear propagating waves over a submerged bar are also studied for validation purposes. Only 2D cases are studied in this paper.

The formulation of the second-order wave-current-body problem in the inertial coordinate system involves higher-order derivatives in the body boundary condition. A new method taking advantage of the body-fixed coordinate system in the near field is presented to avoid the calculation of higher-order derivatives in the body boundary condition. The new method has advantage over the traditional method when the body surface is with sharp corner or high curvature. The nonlinear wave diffraction and forced oscillation of floating bodies are studied up to second order in wave slope. A small forward speed is taken into account. The results of the new method are compared with that of the traditional method based on a formulation in the inertial coordinate system. When the traditional method applies, good agreement has been obtained.Copyright © 2010 by ASME