Modeling nonlinear waves in a numerical wave tank with localized meshless RBF method

This paper presents the numerical simulation of free surface waves in a 2D domain which represents a wave tank, using a localized approach of the meshless radial basis function (RBF) method. Instead of global collocation, the local approach breaks down the problem domain into subdomains, leading to a sparse global system matrix which is particularly advantageous in tackling the time consuming simulation process. Mixed Eulerian–Lagrangian approach is adopted for free surface tracking and fourth order Adams–Bashforth–Moulton scheme (ABM4) is used for time stepping. Both linear and nonlinear Stokes waves are simulated and compared to analytical solutions.