Journal of Ocean Engineering and Science

Volume 1, Issue 4

(7)Influence of temperature and salinity on hydrodynamic forces

A. Escobar ^∗, V. Negro , J.S. López-Gutiérrez , M.D. Esteban
Technical University of Madrid, C/Profesor Aranguren S/N, 28040 Madrid, Spain

Received 26 June 2016; received in revised form 31 August 2016; accepted 21 September 2016
Available online 9 November 2016

Abstract
The purpose of this study is to introduce an innovative approach to offshore engineering so as to take variations in sea temperature and salinity into account in the calculation of hydrodynamic forces. With this in mind, a thorough critical analysis of the influence of sea temperature and salinity on hydrodynamic forces on piles like those used nowadays in offshore wind farms will be carried out. This influence on hydrodynamic forces occurs through a change in water density and viscosity due to temperature and salinity variation. Therefore, the aim here is to observe whether models currently used to estimate wave forces on piles are valid for different ranges of sea temperature and salinity apart from observing the limit when diffraction or nonlinear effects arise combining both effects with the magnitude of the pile diameter. Hence, specific software has been developed to simulate equations in fluid mechanics taking into account nonlinear and diffraction effects. This software enables wave produced forces on a cylinder supported on the sea bed to be calculated. The study includes observations on the calculation model’s sensitivity as to a variation in the cylinder’s diameter, on the one hand and, on the other, as to temperature and salinity variation. This software will enable an iterative calculation to be made for finding out the shape the pressure wave caused when a wave passes over will have for different pile diameters and water with different temperature and salinity.
© 2016 Shanghai Jiaotong University. Published by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ).

Keywords: Sea temperature; Salinity; Hydrodynamic forces; Wave action; Offshore wind farms.