Harbours play a vital role in the economies of most countries since a significant amount of
international trade is conducted through them. Ships rely on harbours for the safe loading and
unloading of cargo and the harbour infrastructure relies on breakwaters for protection. As a result,
the design and analysis of breakwaters receives keen interest from the engineering community.
Coastal engineers need an easy-to-use tool that can model the way in which waves interact with large
numbers of interlocking armour units. Although the study of fluid–structure interaction generates a
lot of research activity, none of the reviewed literature describes a suitable method of analysis. The
goal of the research was to develop a simulation algorithm that meets all the criteria by allowing
CFD software and physics middleware to work in unison.
The proposed simulation algorithm used Linux “shell scripts” to coordinate the actions of
commercial CFD software (Star-CCM+) and freely available physics middleware (PhysX). The CFD
software modelled the two-phase fluid and provided force and moment data to the physics
middleware so that the movement of the armour units could be determined.
The simulation algorithm was verified numerically and experimentally. The numerical verification
exercise was of limited value due to unresolved issues with the CFD software chosen for the
analysis, but it was shown that PhysX responds appropriately given the correct force data as input.
Experiments were conducted in a hydraulics laboratory to study the interaction of a solitary wave
and cubes stacked on a platform. Fiducial markers were used to track the movement of the cubes.
The phenomenon of interest was the transfer of momentum from the wave to the rigid bodies, and
the results confirmed that the effect was captured adequately. The study concludes with suggestions
for further study. / MIng (Mechanical Engineering), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/12163 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Grobler, Jan Hendrik |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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