Numerical towing tank application to the prediction of added resistance performance of KVLCC2 in regular waves

Abstract

The present study provides the numerical simulations with the unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) methods for the prediction of added resistance performance of KVLCC2 advancing forward in regular waves at Fn=0.142 and Re=4.6×106. Six degrees of freedom (DOF) motion equations based on an Euler angles are solved in the body fixed coordinates system originated in the center of gravity of the ship hull. The present method considers the effects of the motions of the hull in the momentum equations as a body force source term instead of moving or deforming the grid with considering the relative grid velocity in the convective terms. The incoming wave based on linear wave theory is prescribed at the upstream far-field boundary to avoid time consuming computational efforts by introducing a numerical wave maker that needs a large computational domain with a huge number of grid points. In addition, the relative translational and rotational velocities according to the motions of the hull including its uniform forward speed are also imposed at all the farfield boundaries. The added resistance and 2DOF motions of KVLCC2 tanker in regular head waves are computed with the developed unsteady RANS method. The computational results of added resistance and 2DOF motion (heave and pitch) responses are in good agreement with the experiments. Copyright ？ 2013 by the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE).