A MULTI-NODE APPROACH TO SIMULATE THIN COASTAL STRUCTURES IN THE SPH CONTEXT

Abstract

We propose an improvement in modeling solid boundary conditions for 2D weakly-compressible Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations for cases in which the thickness of the body is small compared to the desired particle size and the fluid surrounds the body from more than one side. Specifically, the fixed ghost particles technique developed by Marrone et al. (2011), based on interpolation nodes located within the fluid domain, is here extended to a multi-node approach. The fluid domain is thus divided into various sub-areas and an interpolation node for the considered solid particle is associated to every sub-area. Consequently, the solid particles present an array of values interpolated at different sub-areas for the same physical quantity. When a fluid particle located in a specific region interacts with a multi-node fixed ghost particle, the last assumes the field values interpolated in the reference area through the associated node. The present modeling allows to adopt a coarser spatial resolution to model the same physical problem, resulting in a reduction of the computational cost. The proposed solid boundary treatment is applied to horizontal decks and perforated wall-caisson breakwaters subjected to regular waves. In this context, an automatic hybrid diffusive formulation is introduced in order to prevent shock waves during water impacts and preserve the hydrostatic pressure. The formulation is obtained by defining a variable parameter detecting the occurrence of relevant density gradients induced by fluid impacts, resulting in an automatic switch between the two formulations.