The Influence of the Turbulence Closure Model on Wave-Current Interaction Modeling at a Local Scale at a Local Scale

Abstract

An advanced CFD solver based on the RANS (Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes) equations is used to evaluate wave-current interactions through numerical simulations of combined wave-current free surface turbulent flows. The repercussions of various schemes for modeling turbulence effects is addressed with a special attention to the exchanges and fluxes of momentum and energy between the mean flow components and the wave (oscillatory) component. Numerical simulations are compared with experimental data from Klopman (1994).

Experimental investigation on the structure of turbulence in the bottom wave-current boundary layers

“…These have been shown to interact in a non-linear way in the near-bottom region Simons, 1982, 1983;Soulsby et al, 1993), leading to a wave-current boundary layer with altered logarithmic velocity profiles and Reynolds shear stresses. The mechanics of WCI have been investigated extensively by analytical approaches (Lundgren, 1972;Grant and Madsen, 1979;Myrhaug, 1982;Fredsøe, 1984;Christoffersen and Jonsson, 1985;Myrhaug and Slaattelid, 1989;You et al, 1991You et al, , 1992You, 1994aYou, , 1994bMalarkey and Davies, 1998;Umeyama, 2005;2009;Yuan and Madsen, 2015), laboratory experiments (Bakker and van Doorn, 1978;Van Doorn, 1981; Simons, 1982, 1983;Arnskov et al, 1993;Klopman, 1994;Simons et al, 1992Simons et al, , 1994Simons et al, , 2000Lodahl et al, 1998;Fredsøe et al, 1999;Simons and MacIver, 2001;Umeyama, 2005Umeyama, , 2009Umeyama, , 2011Carstensen et al, 2010;Madsen, 2014, 2015) and numerical methods (Davies et al, 1988;Holmedal et al, 2003;Teles et al, 2012Teles et al, , 2013Zhang et al, 2014;Zhang et al, 2017). Coherent vortical structures are the dominant feature in unidirectional turbulent boundary layers, and play crucial roles in carrying turbulent energy and contributing to Re...…”

Experimental investigation of time-invariant eddy viscosity in wave-current interaction

“…Dimensional analysis indicates that eddy viscosity in turbulent flows should be represented by a typical velocity scale 𝑢 𝑚 and a characteristic length scale 𝑙 𝑚 . As mentioned above, models based on eddy viscosity assumptions can be categorised into zero-equation models, one-equation models (Davies et al, 1988), and two-equation models (Son and Andre, 1991;Holmedal et al, 2003;Zheng et al, 2010;Teles et al, 2012Teles et al, , 2013Zhang et al, 2014;Silva et al, 2016;and Zhang et al, 2017), depending on the number of differential equations needed to solve the length scale and/or velocity scale explicitly.…”

A review of the state of research on wave-current interaction in nearshore areas

“…The influence of the turbulence closure model on WCI was also investigated byTeles et al (2012; Markus et al (2013). adopted the CFD package Openfoam to model a combined wave and current condition, focusing on the evaluation of the flow field for a nonlinear wave combined with a nonuniform current.…”

“…Results suggest that for the grain diameter and high-velocity skewness wave condition, a nonlinear waveshape causes most onshore sediment transport. However, for those with relatively low wave skewness and a stronger offshore directed current, nonlinear boundary layer streaming may become the critical mechanism driving the net onshore transport Teles et al (2012;…”