Numerical prediction of ship motion and slamming load characteristics in cross wave

Abstract

When waves from two weather systems converge at a certain sea area, cross waves can be produced. It is important to have a better understanding of the motion characteristics of ship in cross sea to ensure its navigation safety. In this paper, the motion responses of a S175 container ship hull in cross sea is first analyzed based on CFD technique using RANS method. VOF method is used to model and capture the free surface and overset grid technique is adopted to simulate ship motions in waves. Verifications on ship motion by the numerical method have been conducted for time step- and grid-independent studies. According to the motion results by numerical simulation, typical conditions are chosen for further investigation of slamming pressure on bow area and green water on deck. It is found that vertical motion responses of ship induced by cross waves can be quite large and the ship experienced obvious roll–pitch-coupled motion. Severe bow slamming and green water under cross sea state are also observed. The bow flare slamming pressure on the baseline can be quite large in symmetric cross wave. Asymmetrical slamming impacts occurred when the ship sails in an asymmetric cross wave field.