Prediction of flows around ship-shaped hull sections in roll using an unsteady Navier-Stokes solver

Ship-shaped hulls have often been found to be subject to excessive roll motions, and therefore, inhibit their use as a stable production platform. To solve the problem, bilge keels have been widely adopted as an effective and economic way to mitigate roll motions, and their effectiveness lies in their ability to damp out roll motions over a range of frequencies. In light of this, the present research focuses on roll motions of shipshaped hulls. A finite volume method based two-dimensional Navier-Stokes solver is developed and further extended into three dimensions. The present numerical scheme is implemented for modeling the flow around ship-shaped hulls in roll motions and for predicting the corresponding hydrodynamic loads. Also conducted are studies on the hydrodynamic performance of ship-shaped hull sections in prescribed roll motions and in transient decay motions. Systematic studies of the grid resolutions and the effects of free surface, hull geometries and amplitude of roll angle are performed. Predictions from the present method compare well to those of other methods, as well as to measurements from experiments. Non-linear effects, due to flow viscosity, were observed in small as well as in large roll amplitudes, particularly in the cases of hulls with sharp corners. The study also shows that it is inadequate to use a linear combination of added-mass and damping coefficients to represent the corresponding hydrodynamic loads. As a result, it also makes the calculation of the hull response in time domain inevitable. Finally, the capability of the present numerical scheme to apply to fully three-dimensional ship motion simulations is demonstrated.