Prediction of induced vibrations for a passenger - car ferry

Abstract

In order to evaluate the ship hull global vibrations, propeller excitation must be properly considered being mandatory to know enough accurate the magnitude of the induced hull pressure impulses. During the preliminary design stages, the pressures induced on the aft part of the ship by the operating propeller can be evaluated based on the guidelines given by the international standards or by the provisions of the Classification Societies. These approximate formulas are taking into account the wake field which, unfortunately, can be only estimated unless experimental towing tank tests are carried out. Another possibility is the numerical evaluation with different Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) codes. However, CFD methods are not always easy to be used requiring an accurate description of the hull forms in the aft part of the ship. The present research underlines these aspects during the preliminary prediction of propeller induced vibrations for a double-ended passenger-car ferry propelled by two azimuth fixed pitch thrusters placed at both ends of the ship. The evaluation of the global forced vibration is performed considering the 3D global Finite Element (FE) model, with NX Nastran for Windows. Based on the presented results, the paper provides reliable information to be used during the preliminary design stages.