CFD analysis of the sensitivity of propeller bearing loads to stern appendages and propulsive configurations

The present investigation focuses on the effects of the stern appendages and the propulsion system on the hydro-loads generated by the propeller during off-design conditions, with particular emphasis on the in-plane components. Recent experimental investigations carried out by free running model tests [7], [8] and CFD analysis [5] for a modern twin screw model, highlighted that maneuvers at small drift angles and yaw rates might be as critical as the tighter ones due to complex propeller-wake interactions. Therefore, design criteria should take into account also these operative conditions, in order to reduce the effects of propeller-wake interaction phenomena that degrade the overall propulsive efficiency, induce shaft/hull structural vibration and increase noise emission. In the present study we analyze the effects of geometric and propulsive modifications with respect to the twin screw configuration studied in [5]. In particular, the effect of the centreline skeg, propeller direction of rotation and control strategies of the propulsion plant on the propeller bearing loads have been investigated from the analysis of the nominal wake in maneuvring conditions, computed by unsteady RANSE simulations coupled with a propeller model based on Blade Element Theory. The considered test cases were turning circle maneuvers with different rudder angles at F_N = 0.265.     

CFD simulations of the effects of fouling and antifouling

Biofouling is a global problem in the marine industry though its effects on lift and drag are rarely discussed. This paper seeks to employ Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method to quantify the effects of this problem based on the obtained flow field information. The simulation is carried out on a NACA 4424 airfoil and Defence Research Establishment Atlantic (DREA) Submarine Hull. Different levels of fouling are studied with quantified fouling height and density. As an extension, the effects of two common antifouling methods, i.e. tin-free Self-Polishing Copolymer (SPC) and Foul Release on the drag of NACA 4424 foil and the submarine hull is investigated. For NACA 4424 airfoil, fouling reduces lift-drag ratio (C_L/C_D) by up to 80% in maximum and therefore result in the significant increase in fuel consumption. Predicted flow data shows this is related to the increased flow separation region caused by the fouling. It is found that pressure gradient gradually increases from the smallest fouling height to the largest but does not vary that much for fouling of varying densities. The general trend of C_L/C_D varies with angle of attack agrees well with others experimental data. Computed results also show good agreement with experimental data for the DREA bare hull. As to antifouling, Foul Release, despite being 30% more expensive than SPC, exhibits 10-40% higher C_L/C_D as compared to SPC for NACA foil and submarine hull.     

International legal options for the control of biofouling on international vessels

Shipping represents a threat as a vector for the transfer of non-indigenous marine species through the discharge of ballast water and biofouling of vessels’ external structures and internal piping. While considerable attention has been given to the management of ballast water, there currently exists no international legal instrument with which to control biofouling.A number of existing legal mechanisms may be applicable in the context of coastal States’ rights under international law. However, existing mechanisms are insufficient to regulate all aspects of the biofouling problem to ensure comprehensive management of the issue. There is, therefore, a need for the development of a comprehensive international agreement to address this gap. The issue of biofouling on international vessels has now been included on the work programme of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). As a contribution to discussions on how to address this particular issue at an international level, this article provides an analysis of the options available through the IMO to address this issue.Having defined the specific “threat scenario” with regard to hull fouling, the article will consider: (i) the international legal framework that has been established to regulate the harmful impacts of international shipping; (ii) the range of practical measures that are available to manage biofouling on vessels; and (iii) international legal options available to States to address the threat of biofouling posed by international shipping.     

Estimation of ship motions using closed-form expressions

A semi-analytical approach is used to derive frequency response functions for the wave-induced motions for monohull ships. The results are given as closed-form expressions and the required input information for the procedure is restricted to the main dimensions: length, breadth, draught, block coefficient and water plane area together with speed and heading. The formulas make it simple to obtain quick estimates of the wave-induced motions and accelerations in the conceptual design phase and to perform a sensitivity study of the variation with main dimensions and operational profile.     

CFD, system-based and EFD study of ship dynamic instability events: Surf-riding, periodic motion, and broaching

CFD and system-based simulation are used to predict broaching, surf-riding, and periodic motion for the ONR Tumblehome model, including captive and free model test validation studies. CFD shows close agreement with EFD for calm water resistance, static heel (except for sway force and yaw moment), and static drift (except for roll moment). CFD predictions of static heel in following waves also compare well with EFD except for surge force, sway force, and pitch angle. Froude-Krylov calculations of wave-induced surge force in following waves provides good agreement for high Froude number, but significantly overestimates for Froude number less than 0.2. On the other hand, CFD successfully reproduces the reduction of the wave-induced surge force near Froude number 0.2, probably because CFD can capture the 3D wave pattern. CFD free model simulations are performed for several speeds and headings and validated for the first time for surf-riding, broaching, and periodic motions. System-based simulations are carried out based on inputs from EFD, CFD, and Froude-Krylov for a dense grid of speeds and headings to predict the instability map, which were found to produce fairly similar results.     

An experimental investigation into the influence of the damage openings on ship response

Ship motions after damage are difficult to evaluate since they are affected by complex phenomena regarding fluid and structures interactions. The possibility to better understand how ship behavior in damage is influenced by these phenomena is important for improving ship safety, especially for passenger vessel.In this paper an experimental campaign is carried out on a passenger ferry hull, to show the effects of the water dynamics across damage openings on ship motions. Novel aspects of this research include the study of the effects of the damage position on the ship roll response. The study is carried out for still water and for beam regular waves at zero speed.Results from the experiments carried out underline that the roll behavior of a damaged ship is affected by the position of damage opening and not only by its size. Assuming the same final equilibrium conditions after flooding but characterized by different damage openings it is possible to observe how motions RAOs and roll decay characteristics modify according to the opening locations.     

The effect of appendages on the hydrodynamic characteristics of an underwater vehicle near the free surface

An underwater vehicle typically has various appendages such as sail, rudders and hydroplanes. These appendages affect the hull hydrodynamic characteristics, including the resistance components and the form of the generated wave due to the motion of the vehicle near the free surface. The effect of the appendages on the hydrodynamic characteristics of an underwater vehicle near the free surface is studied. Initially the DARPPA SUBOFF submarine without the appendages is selected and hydrodynamic characteristics, including the friction resistance, viscous pressure resistance, wave resistance and shape of the created wave on the free surface are calculated for Froude numbers in the range of 0.128–0.84 and non-dimensional submergence depths 1.3, 2.2, 3.3 & 4.4. Then, by adding the appendages and comparing these two conditions, the effect of appendages is obtained. The results of computations indicate that the appendages cause a mean increase of about 16% in the total resistance. This increment is due to viscosity of fluid and also the interaction of the main hull with the appendages. There are no significant changes in the wave pattern and wave making resistance due to the presence of appendages.     

Model test and simulation of a ship with wavefoils

The paper describes model tests of a tanker with two fixed bow-mounted foils (wavefoils), for resistance and motion reduction in waves. Measured ship resistance, wavefoil thrust and ship motions were compared with time-domain simulations. The wavefoil forces were calculated using a slightly modified Leishman–Beddoes dynamic stall model, with a two-way coupling to the ship motions. In typical sea states in head seas, employing the wavefoils reduced ship resistance by 9–17%, according to scaled model test resistance. Heave and pitch were reduced by −11% to 32% and 11% to 25%, respectively. The foils affect the flow around the hull. This should be considered when selecting the wavefoil location in the design process.     

Computations of self-propulsion free to sink and trim and of motions in head waves of the KRISO Container Ship (KCS) model

Two computations of the KCS model with motions are presented. Self-propulsion in model scale free to sink and trim are studied with the rotating discretized propeller from the Hamburg Model Basin (HSVA) at Fr = 0.26. This case is particularly complex to simulate due to the close proximity of the propeller to the rudder. The second case involves pitch and heave in regular head waves. Computations were performed with CFDShip-Iowa version 4.5, a RANS/DES CFD code designed for ship hydrodynamics. The self-propulsion computations were carried out following the procedure described in Carrica et al. [1], in which a speed controller is used to find the propeller rotational speed that results in the specified ship velocity. The rate of revolutions n, sinkage, trim, thrust and torque coefficients K_T, K_Q and resistance coefficient CT_(SP) are thus obtained. Comparisons between CFD and EFD show that the rate of revolutions n, thrust and torque coefficients K_T and K_Q have higher prediction accuracies than sinkage and trim. For the simulation of pitch and heave in head waves, the geometry includes KCS hull and rudder under three conditions with two Froude numbers and three wave length and amplitude combinations. 0th and 1st harmonic amplitudes and 1st harmonic phase are computed for total resistance coefficient C_T, heave motion z and pitch angle θ. Comparisons between CFD and EFD show that pitch and heave are much better predicted than the resistance. In both cases comparisons with simulations by other authors presented at the G2010 CFD Workshop [2] using different CFD methodologies are included.     

An inverse hull design approach in minimizing the ship wave

The Levenberg–Marquardt Method (LMM) and a panel code for solving the wave-making problem are utilized in an inverse hull design problem for minimizing the wave of ships. A typical catamaran is selected as the example ship for the present study. The hull form of the catamaran is described by the B-spline surface method so that the shape of the hull can be completely specified using only a small number of parameters (i.e. control points). The technique of parameter estimation for the inverse design problem is thus chosen. The LMM of parameter estimation, which is the combination of steepest descent and Newton’s methods, has been proven to be a powerful tool for the inverse shape design problem. For this reason it is adopted in the present study.In the present studies, the inverse hull design method can not only be applied to estimate the hull form based on the known wave data of the target ship but can also be applied to estimate the unknown hull form based on the reduced wave height. The optimal hull forms of minimizing wave for a typical catamaran in deep water at service speed and at the critical speed of shallow water are estimated, respectively. Moreover, a new hull form with the combining feature of the optimal hull forms for deep water and shallow water is performing well under both conditions. The numerical simulation indicates that the hull form designed by inverse hull design method can reduce the ship wave significantly in comparison with the original hull form.     

Stochastic time-series simulation of wave parameters using ship observations

A stochastic simulation technique was used with ship wave observations, which form the largest world-wide data base of wave information. Twenty years of wave parameter (height, period, and direction) observations from the Comprehensive Ocean–Atmosphere Data Set (COADS) were used as the input data. Simulations were compared to four years of wave parameters from a National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) data buoy near Monterey Bay, CA. The comparisons are satisfactory with differences mainly caused by biases between ship observations and buoy data. The stochastic simulation technique is attractive because it is computationally efficient and few decisions are required for its application. The applied techniques can be employed with global COADS data to simulate wave conditions at many world-wide locations where measurements and hindcasts by computer models do not exist.     

A numerical and experimental study on tank wall influences in drag estimation

This study has been undertaken to quantify the tank wall effects on resistance estimation of ship models. Given the finite width of a tank, the flow around a ship model has been numerically modelled and the pressure and pressure related drag have been estimated.Since the model runs at speeds essentially in the laminar and transient speed range, an inviscid model has been chosen for obtaining the pressure drag component in the numerical studies. Grid dependency study has been done to optimize the mesh in the control volume for the numerical studies. An unstructured grid consisting of hexahedral cells has been used in the volume of fluid (VOF) model. The model chosen is a medium speed, ocean going barge and the residuary resistance has been obtained for different tank width conditions. The tank width has been defined using a non-dimensionalized parameter W/B (tank width W, model width B) ratio. The study shows that the residuary resistance obtained at W/B=5.0 is free from tank wall influence for the chosen model. The findings of the study have been compared by testing two geosim models under the same tank width conditions. The residuary resistance values have been compared with numerical results. The combined numerical experimental approach provides interesting results of consistency for comparison. The tank wall influences suggested by the numerical study are well quantified in the experimental study and give useful guideline for limiting wall influences.     

A critical CAE analysis of the bottom shape of a multi stepped air cavity planing hull

One of the most important aspects, in the ACS and multi stepped hull design, is the choice of the geometrical shape of the cavity and the steps. In this article a complete experimental and numerical campaign on a multi stepped ACS has been carried out, varying the velocity and the air flow rate under the hull. The experimental tests have been conducted in an ITTC Towing Tank allowing to validate the numerical simulations obtained by means of a CFD U-RANSe (Unesteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equations) code. The CFD setup is described in detail. From this campaign a critical analysis of the Froude number influence on the air cushion shape has been argued. The authors identified four different behaviours, from low to very high Froude numbers. The use of CFD has allowed to observe quantities of difficult evaluation by means of traditional experimental test, as e.g. the frictional component of the resistance, the airflow path lines and the volume of fraction in transversal and longitudinal sections. The results have been discussed.     

On the identification of ship coupled heave–pitch motions using neural networks

This paper outlines a procedure for the derivation of the differential equations describing the free response of a heaving and pitching ship from its stationary response to random waves. The coupled heave–pitch motion of a ship in random seas is modelled as a multi-dimensional Markov process. The partial differential equation describing the transition probability density function, known as the Fokker-Planck equation, for this process is derived. The Fokker-Planck equation is used to derive the random decrement equations for the coupled heave–pitch motion. The parameters in these equations are then identified using a neural network approach. The method is validated using numerical simulations and experimental results. The experimental data was obtained using an icebreaker ship model heaving and pitching in random waves. It is shown that the method produces good results when the system is lightly damped. An extension for using this method to identify couple heave–pitch motion in realistic seas is suggested.     

Numerical investigation of auto-pitch wing-in-ground effect oscillating foil propulsor

The propulsive characteristics of auto-pitch wing-in-ground effect oscillating foil propulsors (APWIGs) were numerically investigated through an unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes solver. The kinematics of such a biplane configuration is characterized by the prescribed heave motion and flow-induced pitch motion restrained by a torsional spring for each foil. Based on the validated numerical model, the comparison of propulsive performance between APWIGs and single auto-pitch oscillating foil, as well as dual-foil heave-only configuration, was conducted at different advance speeds. Results show that APWIGs is advantageous in both thrust production and efficiency enhancement over other two configurations due to the resulting wing-in-ground effect and substantial reduction of flow separation by the flow-regulated pitch motion. Furthermore, the effect of torsional spring stiffness on the propulsion of APWIGs was studied under different loaded conditions. It was found that both the maximum pitching angle and phase difference of pitch with heave are dramatically affected by the spring stiffness, which has major contribution to the hydrodynamic behaviours of the foils. Under a certain operating speed, an optimal torsional spring stiffness that produces the best propulsive performance can be found. With respect to the parametric space in the current study, the APWIGs can achieve a constant high efficiency over 70% by employing an appropriate spring stiffness.     

A case study for the effect of a flow improvement device (a partial wake equalizing duct) on ship powering characteristics

A case study for the energy saving in the powering characteristics of a river going general cargo ship has been carried out. Two different hull forms were generated from the original hull form of the vessel to optimise the stern flow of the vessel. A possible energy saving concept, such as partial wake equalizing duct was investigated in this manner. Resistance, self-propulsion and flow visualization measurements were performed with the hull models to explore the effect of partial wake equalizing ducts on the powering characteristics of the hull form. Analysis of the results indicates that the partial wake equalizing duct concept with an appropriate stern design affect not only the flow characteristics at aft-end, but also the propulsion characteristics. In order to identify effect of each component (partial wake equalizing duct and stern form) a further investigation is needed.     

Probabilistic modeling of ship powering performance using full-scale operational data

The energy efficiency of ocean-going vessels can be increased through various operational considerations, such as improved cargo arrangements and weather routing. The first step toward the goal of maximizing the energy efficiency is to analyze how the ship's powering performance changes under different operational settings and weather conditions. However, existing analytical models and empirical methods have limitations in reliably estimating the powering performance of full-scale ships in real operating conditions. In this study, machine learning techniques are employed to estimate the powering performance of a full-scale ship by constructing regression models using the ship's operational data. In order to minimize the risk of overfitting in the regression process, domain knowledge based on physical principles is combined into the regression models. Also, the uncertainty of the estimated performance is evaluated with consideration of the environmental uncertainties. The obtained regression models can be used to predict the ship speed and engine power under different operational settings and weather conditions.     

Theoretical and experimental study on dynamic behavior of a damaged ship in waves

Most of the large scaled casualties are caused by loss of structural strength and stability due to the progressive flooding and the effect of waves and wind. To prevent foundering and structural failure, it is necessary to predict the motion of the damaged ship in waves.This paper describes the motion of damaged ship in waves resulting from a theoretical and experimental study. A time domain theoretical model, which can be applied to any type of ship or arrangement, for the prediction of damaged ship motion and accidental flooding has been developed considering the effects of flooding of compartments. To evaluate the accuracy of the model, model tests are carried out in ship motion basin for three different damaged conditions: engine room bottom damage, side shell damage and bow visor damage of Ro–Ro ship in regular and irregular waves with different wave heights and directions.