An open-source library for hydrodynamic simulation of marine structures

Abstract

The work focuses on an open and collaborative approach for hydrodynamic simulations of multibody operations. It builds on Vessel.js, an existing web-based ship design library, by modeling the interaction between entities and creating multibody models able to output different responses. To develop the cases here studied, the simulations are decomposed into single elements to understand their behavior separately before making them interact with other elements to create a multibody simulation. In the process, different hydrodynamic models are used to analyze the bodies according to the requirements of the simulations and the needed level of complexity. The simulations are coded in JavaScript and visualized in a web environment, with the option of using external hydrodynamic analyzes, which in this work were exemplified using a commercial software that adopts the linear potential wave theory. The paper concludes with a discussion about future applications of methods and simulations.