Numerical simulation and experimental study of hydrodynamic characteristics of inverted-droplet underwater gas storage devices

Under the influence of ocean currents, multiple inverted-droplet shaped gas storage devices positioned on the seafloor may interact, potentially leading to structural damage. In this study, hydrodynamic experiments were conducted, and the resulting data were employed to validate the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model. Based on the validated CFD model, simulations were performed to explore the hydrodynamic characteristics of full-scale inverted-droplet shaped gas storage devices. The results indicate that the drag coefficient and lift coefficient of the device are 0.7813 and 0.4332, respectively, at a flow velocity of 0.1 m/s. A study examining the effects of incident current angle and device spacing on the force characteristics was conducted, revealing that the device's resistance increases with a greater incident angle, and that both drag and lift forces are minimized when the device spacing is 2.5D. These findings offer valuable insights for optimizing the design and arrangement of future underwater gas storage systems.