Numerical modeling of water waves with the SPH method

Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) is a relatively new method for examining the propagation of highly nonlinear and breaking waves. At Johns Hopkins University, we have been working since 2000 to develop an engineering tool using this technique. However, there have been some difficulties in taking the model from examples using a small number of particles to more elaborate and better resolved cases. Several improvements that we have implemented are presented here to handle turbulence, the fluid viscosity and density, and a different time-stepping algorithm is used. The final model is shown to be able to model breaking waves on beaches in two and three dimensions, green water overtopping of decks, and wave–structure interaction.