In situations where the calculation of ocean wave propagation and impact on offshore structures is required, fast numerical solvers are desired in order to find relevant wave events. After the identification of the relevant events, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) based Numerical Wave Tanks (NWT) with an interface capturing two-phase flow approach can be used to resolve the complex wave structure interaction, including breaking wave kinematics. CFD models emphasize detail of the hydrodynamic physics, which makes them not the ideal candidate for the event identification due to the large computational resources involved. In the current paper a new numerical wave model is represented that solves the Laplace equation for the flow potential and the nonlinear kinematic and dynamics free surface boundary conditions. This approach requires reduced computational resources compared to CFD based NWTs. In contrast to existing approaches, the resulting fully nonlinear potential flow solver REEF3D::FNPF uses a σ-coordinate grid for the computations. Solid boundaries are incorporated through a ghost cell immersed boundary method. The free surface boundary conditions are discretized using fifth-order WENO finite difference methods and the third-order TVD Runge-Kutta scheme for time stepping. The Laplace equation for the potential is solved with Hypre's stabilized bi-conjugated gradient solver preconditioned with geometric multi-grid. REEF3D::FNPF is fully parallelized following the domain decomposition strategy and the MPI communication protocol. The model is successfully tested for wave propagation benchmark cases for shallow water conditions with variable bottom as well as deep water.

Summary: Phase‐resolved information is necessary for many coastal wave problems, for example, for the wave conditions in the vicinity of harbor structures. Two‐dimensional (2D) depth‐averaging shallow water models are commonly used to obtain a phase‐resolved solution near the coast. These models are in general more computationally effective compared with computational fluid dynamics software and will be even more capable if equipped with a parallelized code. In the current article, a 2D wave model solving the depth‐averaged continuity equation and the Euler equations is implemented in the open‐source hydrodynamic code REEF3D. The model is based on a nonhydrostatic extension and a quadratic vertical pressure profile assumption, which provides a better approximation of the frequency dispersion. It is the first model of its kind to employ high‐order discretization schemes and to be fully parallelized following the domain decomposition strategy. Wave generation and absorption are achieved with a relaxation method. The simulations of nonlinear long wave propagations and transformations over nonconstant bathymetries are presented. The results are compared with benchmark wave propagation cases. A large‐scale wave propagation simulation over realistic irregular topography is shown to demonstrate the model's capability of solving operational large‐scale problems.

Modern design for marine and coastal activities places increasing focus on numerical simulations. Several numerical wave models have been developed in the past few decades with various techniques and assumptions. Those numerical models have their own advantages and disadvantages. The proper choice of the most useful numerical tool depends on the understanding of the validity and limitations of each model. In the past years, REEF3D has been developed into an open-source hydrodynamic numerical toolbox that consists of several modules based on the Navier–Stokes equations, the shallow water equations and the fully nonlinear potential theory. All modules share a common numerical basis which consists of rectilinear grids with an immersed boundary method, high-order finite differences and high-performance computing capabilities. The numerical wave tank of REEF3D utilises a relaxation method to generate waves at the inlet and dissipate them at the numerical beach. In combination with the choice of the numerical grid and discretisation methods, high accuracy and stability can be achieved for the calculation of free surface wave propagation and transformation. The comparison among those models provide an objective overview of the different wave modelling techniques in terms of their numerical performance as well as validity. The performance of the different modules is validated and compared using several benchmark cases. They range from simple propagations of regular waves to three-dimensional wave breaking over a changing bathymetry. The diversity of the test cases help with an educated choice of wave models for different scenarios.

Nonlinear wave interactions and superpositions among the different wave components and wave groups in a random sea sometimes produce rogue waves with extremely large wave heights that appear unexpectedly. A good understanding of the generation and evolution of such extreme wave events is of great importance for the analysis of wave forces on marine structures. A fully nonlinear potential flow (FNPF) model is proposed in the presented paper to investigate the different factors that influence the wave focusing location, focusing time and focusing wave height in a numerical wave tank. Those factors include wave steepness, spectrum bandwidth, wave generation method, focused wave spectrum, and wave spreading functions. The proposed model solves the Laplace equation together with the boundary conditions on a $\sigma$ -coordinate grid using high-order discretisation schemes on a fully parallel computational framework. The model is validated against the focused wave experiments and thereafter used to obtain insights into the effects of the different factors. It is found that the wave steepness contributes to changing the location and time of focus significantly. Spectrum bandwidth and directional spreading affect the focusing wave height and profile, for example, a wider bandwidth and a wider directional spread lead to a lower focusing wave height. A Neumann boundary condition represents the nonlinearity of the wave groups better than a relaxation method for wave generation.