Environment: Sea Data Page 1 of 1

Environment: Sea Data

Sea Surface Z
Specifies the global Z coordinate of the mean (or still) water level.
Kinematic Viscosity
This value is used to calculate Reynolds number. The viscosity can either be a constant or vary
with temperature.
Temperature
The temperature of the water can either be constant or vary with depth below the mean water
level.
The temperature can affect the kinematic viscosity (if that is specified as varying with
temperature), which in turn affects the Reynolds number. This, in turn, can affect the drag and lift
coefficients used for a line.

Reynolds number calculation

Reynolds number, Re, is a measure of the flow regime defined as
Re = VL/ν
where V and L are velocity and length parameters chosen to characterise the flow, and ν is the
kinematic viscosity of the fluid. Different values of Re result from different selections of
characteristic velocity and length.
OrcaFlex calculates Reynolds number in order to calculate drag and lift coefficients for lines that
are specified as varying with Reynolds number. Accordingly the characteristic velocity is based on
the relative flow velocity at a node, Vr = Vfluid - Vnode and the characteristic length is always
related to the normal drag / lift diameter of the node, D.
OrcaFlex offers the following options for characteristic velocity and length:
• Nominal Re, Renom, is defined by setting V = |Vr| and L = D. That is Renom = |Vr|D/ν.
• Cross Flow Re, Recross, is defined by setting V = |Vn| and L = D where Vn is the component
of Vr normal to the line. If we define α to be the angle between the relative flow direction
and the normal to the line then we can write Recross = |Vr|Dcos(α)/ν since |Vn| = |Vr|cos(α).
• Flow Direction Re, Reflow, is defined by setting V = |Vr| and L = D/cos(α), the length of the
line cross section in the relative flow direction. This gives Reflow = |Vr|D/νcos(α). Note that
the division by cos(α) means that Reflow can be arbitrarily large when the relative flow is
very near axial, but this does not matter since the normal component of relative velocity is
then very small, so the drag and lift forces are also very small.
These can all be related by the equation Recross/cos(α) = Renom = Reflowcos(α), from which it
follows that Recross ≤ Renom ≤ Reflow.
Reynolds number is available as a line results variable.

Note: Which method you select for calculating Reynolds number is in many ways
arbitrary. The key factor is that the method chosen matches the data source
used for the variable drag and lift coefficient data. For example, ESDU 80025
provides curves relating drag and lift coefficients to Reflow. Different data
sources may make different choices.

mk:@MSITStore:C:\Program%20Files%20(x86)\Orcina\OrcaFlex\10.0\Orca... 13/06/2016