Motion Simulation of FPSO in Waves through Numerical Sensitivity Analysis

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical sensitivity analysis for the simulation of the motion performance of an offshore structure in waves using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Starting with 2D wave simulations with varying numerical parameters such as grid spacing and CFL value, proper numerical conditions were found for accurate wave propagation that avoids numerical diffusion problems. These results were mapped on 2D error distributions of wave amplitude and wave length against the numbers of grids per wave length and per wave height under a given CFL condition. Finally, the 2D numerical sensitivity result was validated through CFD simulation of the motion of a FPSO in waves showing good accuracy in motion RAOs compared with existing potential flow solutions.

Keywords

• Wave propagation
• Motion
• CFD
• Numerical sensitivity
• Error distribution