Wind and current loads on a pipelaying crane vessel

Abstract

Wind and current loads have a significant effect on crane vessel and pipelaying operations. This study analyzes a pipelaying crane vessel performing deep-water operations, and uses a computational fluid dynamics code to calculate the wind and current load and moment coefficients of the vessel during its operations. The simulation conditions are set to be identical to those of wind tunnel tests, and the crane vessel hull is divided into upper and lower parts, with the upper part influenced by the wind loads and the lower part influenced by the current loads. In this work, 3D hull models were constructed, and k-ε turbulence models were solved by the Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes Equations. The wind and current loads on the hull model are obtained for 50 wind and current angle combinations. The simulation results are found to be in good agreement (within 10%) with the wind tunnel test results for most headings, verifying the feasibility of the numerical simulation method. Finally, the characteristics of the load coefficients are generalized.