CFD prediction of ship response to extreme winds and/or waves

The effects of winds and/or waves on ship motions, forces, moments, maneuverability and controllability are investigated with URANS computations.

The air/water flow computations employ a semi-coupled approach in which water is not affected by air, but air is computed assuming the free surface as a moving immersed boundary. The exact potential solution of waves/wind problem is modified introducing a logarithmic blending in air, and imposed as boundary and initial conditions. The turbulent air flows over 2D water waves are studied to investigate the effects of waves on incoming wind flow. Ship airwake computations are performed with different wind speeds and directions for static drift and dynamic PMM in calm water, pitch and heave in regular waves, and 6DOF motions in irregular waves simulating hurricane CAMILLE. Ship airwake analyses show that the vortical structures evolve due to ship motions and affect the ship dynamics significantly. Strong hurricane head and following winds affect up to 28% the resistance and 7% the motions. Beam winds have most significant effects causing considerable roll motion and drift forces, affecting the controllability of the ship.

A harmonic wave group single run seakeeping procedure is developed, validated and compared with regular wave and transient wave group procedures. The regular wave procedure requires multiple runs, whereas single run procedures obtain the RAOs for a range of frequencies at a fixed speed, assuming linear ship response. The transient wave group procedure provides continuous RAOs, while the harmonic wave group procedure obtains discrete transfer functions, but without focusing. Verification and validation studies are performed for transient wave group procedure. Validation is achieved at the average interval of 9.54 (%D). Comparisons of the procedures show that harmonic wave group is the most efficient, saving 75.8% on the computational cost compared to regular wave procedure. Error values from all procedures are similar at 4 (%D). Harmonic wave group procedure is validated for a wide range of Froude numbers, with satisfactory results.

Deterministic wave groups are used for three sisters rogue waves modeling. A 6DOF ship simulation is demonstrated which shows total loss of controllability with extreme ship motions, accelerations and structural loads.