Laboratory study on steep wave interactions with fixed and moving cylinder

Abstract

In this paper, a new set of experiments on the focused wave (using the second-order wavemaker theory) and current interactions with cylinders is being carried out. To represent a uniform current in laboratory, a cylinder is towed with a velocity opposite to the wave propagation directions. This paper discusses the experimental setup and test cases that were released for the comparative study at the ISOPE-2020 meeting. To obtain good correlation with different runs, the repeatability of the experiments is confirmed by comparing the surface elevation measurements at the fixed wave gauge location near the wave paddle, and an uncertainty analysis was carried out. The details on different test cases with varying frequency bandwidths of the focusing waves, speeds of the cylinder, and the locations of focusing are reported in this paper. Furthermore, a comparison of the dynamic pressure on the cylinder is reported between experiments with focusing waves with but without the towing condition. The present experimental campaign can be used as a validation case for state-of-theart numerical models.