Non-hydrostatic finite volume model for non-linear waves interacting with structures

An efficient non-hydrostatic finite volume model is developed and applied to simulate non-linear waves interacting with structures. The unsteady Navier-Stokes equations are solved in a 3D grid made of polyhedrons, which are built from a 2D horizontal unstructured grid by adding several horizontal layers. A new grid arrangement in the vertical direction is proposed, which renders the resulting model is relatively simple. Moreover, the discretized Poisson equation for pressure is symmetric and positive definite, and thus it can be solved effectively by the preconditioned conjugate gradient method. Several test cases including solitary wave interacting with a submerged structure, solitary wave scattering from a vertical circular cylinder and an array of four circular cylinders are used to demonstrate the capability of the model on simulating non-linear waves interacting with structures. In all cases, the model gives satisfactory results in comparison with analytical solutions, experimental data and other published numerical results. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.