Numerical investigation of shallow water effect on a barge ship resistance

Abstract

The inland waterway cargo transport has extended over the decades, bringing up specific technical issues. From the hydrodynamics point of view, for the inland ships one of the most challenging issue is the effect of shallow water on the ship resistance. In the present study, there are developed numerical analyses for the viscous flow around a barge hull in the case of the shallow water fluid domain. The barge hull has prismatic shapes, in the cargo holds areas, with vertical sides, and geometric non-linear shapes more significant at the fore part. The hull shape CAD model is developed by Rhinoceros software. The numerical analyses are performed by CFD RANS-VOF method, with free surface and shallow-water, using the NUMECA / FineMarine software, having free sinkage and trim conditions. The shallow-water flow induces significant hydrodynamic non-linearities in compare to the deep-water flows. Several ship speeds and water depths are considered. We have focused on the identification of the ship’s induced waves system and the resulting barge resistance. The conclusions of this study are stressing out the significant influence of the shallow-water conditions on the barge resistance, making possible to draw up practical technical information’s for the barge hull design.