Numerical simulation for a passing ship and a moored barge alongside quay

Abstract

A moored barge alongside quay can be influenced by a nearby passing ship and its ship-generated waves. In this study, a time-domain numerical method based on a three-dimensional potential flow solver is developed to investigate the passing ship problem with a moored barge alongside quay. Potential flows around the passing ship and the moored barge alongside a quay is directly solved by using a classical finite element method. Total computational meshes including a passing ship, a moored barge and a quay is updated at each step with an efficient re-mesh algorithm. To validate the developed numerical method, a conventional ship wave problem and a passing ship problem on the open sea has been solved and the solutions are compared with the existing data. Then, a series of numerical computations were carried out to investigate the passing ship effect on a moored barge alongside quay. The characteristics of the passing ship effects are studied with varying the simulation parameters such as passing ship speed, separation distance, wall distances and waves. Focus is made on hydrodynamic forces due to the passing ship effect and its ship waves.