Pressure predictions during water entry of a 2D rigid cylinder using SPH method

Water entry of cylindrical shaped structures is important in the context of loads due to wave impact/slamming on floating buoys used for wave energy conversion [1]. Wave impact or slamming is a phenomenon characterized by high local pressures (10 bar or more) for very short durations (in the order of milliseconds). Slamming loads cause severe damage to the structure [2]. This forms the typical case of fluid-structure interaction between the floating buoys and the water surrounding the buoys [3]. Different numerical approximation methods are available for simulating fluid structure interaction problems. Traditional mesh techniques use nodes and elements for approximating the continuum equations whereas particle methods like smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) approximate the continuum equations using the kernel approximation technique and hence can be used for a wide range of fluid dynamics problems [4].