Abstract

Operating in crowded waterways pose a risk of accidents and disasters due to maneuvering limitations of the ship. In order to predict ship’s maneuvering characteristics at the design stage, model tests are often executed as the most accurate prediction tool. Two approaches can be distinguished here: free running model tests and numerical simulations based on planar motion model with the use of hydrodynamic derivatives obtained from captive model tests. However, although the model tests give very accurate prediction of ship’s maneuvering performance, they are often not affordable both due to the cost and due to their duration, making them less efficient in iterative design process. Thus, CFD simulations became one of the most commonly used research methods in ship hydrodynamics, offering reasonable compromise between the accuracy and the cost. Along with continuously improving computing power and increasingly accurate numerical methods, it became possible to develop new ways of assessing ship maneuvering performance with the use state of the art CFD tools. The purpose of this paper is to present one of such methods which is established for practical use in design process of a ship. The analysis is focused on evaluation of hydrodynamic derivatives for the hull based on CFD simulation equivalent to the rotating arm test - one of the variants of captive tests. The results are verified versus the results of model tests carried out in Maritime Advanced Research Centre CTO S.A. with the use of planar motion mechanism - PMM.

Authors (2)