NONLINEAR FREE SURFACE CALCULATIONS IN A TANK

A finite element model has been developed to solve linear and fully non-linear free surface flow problems in a two-dimensional tank. The free surface boundary conditions are formulated in a Lagrangian sense allowing tracking of the fluid particles on the free surface and the evaluation of the velocity potential at these material points. An efficient mesh generation method based on boundary-fitted curvilinear co-ordinates was found to adapt well to the contours described by the bodies and the free surface. The numerical procedure was used to solve this system proved to be relatively simple to implement, inexpensive and highly stable in delivering nodal co-ordinates for a number of physical domains.