SPH simulation of green water and ship flooding scenarios

Abstract

Flooding of a ship's deck (greenwater) or within its internal compartments can severely restrict the operational ability of the vessel, and the safety of its cargo. In severe circumstances such as those produced by freak waves or hull damage, the vessel can become unstable causing it to sink and/or capsize. The flows produced by such events tend to be highly dynamic, with large amounts of free surface deformation. For this reason, SPH is a valuable method for predicting the physics of such flows. In this paper, SPH is used to predict fluid behaviour for two different flooding scenarios. The first is the interaction between a vessel (represented by a rigid body) and undulating travelling waves. The predicted water heights on the deck are compared to experimental results in [1]. The second is the transient flooding behaviour that occurs during, and immediately after a side collision between two vessels. Water heights are measured close to the point of impact within the vessel. The measurements are compared to experimental results in [2].