Numerical Modeling, Prediction of Ship Maneuvering and Hydrodynamics during Inland Waterway Transport

In this work, ship hydrodynamics during inland waterway transport and ship manoeuvring are investigated using CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) based on OpenFoam. Validation and verification studies are carried out for the mesh convergence, time step convergence, sensitivity to turbulence models and dynamic mesh techniques. A quaternion-based 6DoF motion solver is implemented for the trim and sinkage predictions. Environmental effects on several inland vessels (convoy 1, convoy 2, tanker) are studied using the validated numerical models. Three important aspects, the confinement effect of the waterway, head-on encounter, and ship-bridge pile interaction are simulated. The testing conditions cover a wide range, including various channel dimensions, water depths, ship draughts and speeds. The ship resistance, wave pattern, Kelvin angle and wave elevation at specific positions are investigated as functions of these parameters. Ship manoeuvring is investigated using virtual captive model tests based on the MMG (Mathematical Maneuvering Group) model. An actuator disk is implemented to replace the real propeller. Open water test, rudder force test, OTT (Oblique Towing Tank test) and CMT (Circular Motion Test) of a KVLCC2 model are carried out to obtain the hydrodynamic coefficients of the propeller, rudder and ship hull. Using the obtained coefficients, system-based manoeuvring simulations are carried out and validated using the free running test data. These studies reproduce real ship tests and thus prove the validity of our numerical models. As a result, the numerical solver is promising in ship hydrodynamics and marine engineering simulations. See more