In addition to the forces imposed by ocean waves, piping elements can also be subjected to forces imposed by ocean currents. There are three different ocean current models in CAESAR II: linear current, piece-wise, and power law profile.
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The linear current profile assumes that the current velocity through the water column varies linearly from the specified surface velocity (at the surface) to zero (at the bottom).
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The piece-wise linear profile employs linear interpolation between specific user-defined depth/velocity points.
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The power law profile decays the surface velocity to the 1/7 power.
While waves produce unsteady flow where the particle velocities and accelerations at a point constantly change, currents produce a steady, non-varying flow.