Session: 06-05-04 Marine Hydrodynamics - IV

Submission Number: 180854

Exploring the Impact of Different Turbulence Models on Wave Breaking Forces for a Vertical Cylinder 

Characterizing wave loading is an important design consideration to ensure the structural integrity of fixed offshore structures (e.g., offshore wind monopiles and jackets). Wave loading comes in many forms, ranging from the cyclic loading of operational waves to extreme loading from single events like slamming loads from breaking waves. However, simulating breaking waves and characterizing the resulting wave loading is challenging due to the complex physics and highly non-linear interactions of breaking waves. These challenges include representing the two-phase flow of the air-water interface and capturing the fluid-structure interaction. Wave breaking events are often characterized through scaled experimental testing, or through empirical models that require experimental data to obtain the parameterized coefficients. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models have proven to be well suited to handle these types of problems and are advantageous over experimental testing due to their low-cost, relatively quick simulation time, and high model fidelity.  Furthermore, CFD provides information about the full computational domain, thus providing a resolution that is not possible to obtain via physical experiments. 

The work presented is focused on simulating wave breaking and the resulting wave loading on a fixed vertical cylinder. Simulations are performed using the open-source software REEF3D::CFD, a Navier-Stokes solver that uses the level set method to resolve two-phase flow. The impact of different turbulence models on simulation of breaking waves on a monopile are compared to experimental data from the Large Wave Flume at the University of Hannover. We anticipate that improvements made to the REEF3D::CFD turbulence models will improve the accuracy of the numerical simulation as compared to the experimental data.

Presenting Author: Kelley Ruehl Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Presenting Author Biography: Kelley Ruehl obtained her M.S. from Oregon State University and worked as an R&D Research Engineer at Sandia National Laboratories for nearly 15 years. At Sandia, her research focused on numerical modeling, experimental testing, and software development for marine renewable energy applications. She served as the Principal Investigator and lead developer of the Wave Energy Converter Simulator (WEC-Sim) since its initial release in 2014. In 2020, WEC-Sim was established as a TEAMER numerical modeling facility, and she collaborated with technology developers to simulate the performance of innovative wave energy concepts. In 2021, WEC-Sim won an R&D 100 Award for open-source simulation software.

Kelley also served as a data analyst for the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Wave Energy Prize, where she supported 1/20th-scale testing for two of the finalists. She led the design, fabrication, and testing of the 1/33rd-scale Floating Oscillating Surge Wave Energy Converter (FOSWEC)—an open-access design and dataset—and contributed to the development of PRIMRE, the data repository for all DOE Water Power Technologies Office–funded research. Additionally, she served as a subject matter expert supporting the development of IEC TC 114 standards and DARPA’s Manta Ray program.

In 2025, Kelley joined the Norwegian University of Science and Technology as a Ph.D. candidate, where she is a member of the EU-funded TWEED doctoral network. At NTNU, her research focuses on understanding wave fatigue loading on offshore wind turbine jacket structures.

Authors:

Kelley Ruehl Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Widar Wang Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Michael Muskulus Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Hans Bihs Norwegian University of Science and Technology