Asymmetric water entry of a wedged grillage structure investigated by CFD-FEM co-simulation

Abstract

When a ship sails in ocean waves the relative movement between ship and wave is very complex. Slamming of bow or stern structures usually occurs in a manner of asymmetric oblique water entry. This implies that both the deflection angle θ and velocity angle α will likely grow to a large value at the same time. In this study, the hydrodynamics problem associated with the asymmetric and oblique water impact of a three-dimensional wedge is investigated using a partitioned CFD-FEM two-way coupled numerical tool by coupling the commercial software STAR-CCM+ and Abaqus within the framework of SIMULIA co-simulation engine. The hydrodynamic problem is solved by the CFD software using overset grid technique while the structural dynamic response is solved by the FEM software. Validation of the numerical results is conducted by using existing test results of symmetric water entry of the wedge first. Then the behaviours of movements, slamming pressure and structural response of the wedge structure during asymmetric water entry by varying the deflection angle θ or the velocity angle α or both are systematically and comparatively investigated. This research shows that the present numerical simulation well predicts both the fluid and structural dynamic characteristics such as fluid cavity and structural stress concentration of asymmetric impact problems, which has potential engineering application value in the field of ship design and slamming loads evaluation.