Approach to Simulate Fluid-Structure Interaction of a Ship in 3-Dimensional Numerical Towing Tank

Abstract

Abstract In the present study, in order to investigate structural response of ships against slamming, whipping and springing a new approach to simulate fluid structure interaction (FSI) of a ship in three dimensional numerical towing tank using ICFD (Incompressible computational fluid dynamics) methodology is explored. ICFD is the state of the art methodology to simulate both structure and incompressible fluid using finite element method (FEM) where both fluid and structure are modeled with Lagrange mesh with relatively rapid computation time. As a case study, slamming impact of bow of a container ship is demonstrated. A numerical simulation of water entry of bow into the water is carried out, and displacement, velocity and acceleration of bow, behavior of surrounding water around bow is investigated. Moreover ongoing project of simulation of an elastic-plastic container ship in regular waves in “numerical towing tank” using a whole container ship model is shortly introduced.