Numerical Calculation of the Viscous Hydrodynamic Forces on a KVLCC Hull Sailing Along Channel Bank

In restricted waters, ships often need to navigate along banks of the waterways. In such case, the hydrodynamic lateral force and yaw moment acting on the ships will be induced due to the asymmetric flow about the ship hull. Accurately predicting these force and moment is of practical significance to ensure a safe navigation and can provide some guidance on correct manoeuvring and control of ships in restricted waters. In the present paper, to study the bank effects on the hydrodynamic forces acting on a ship manoeuvring in restricted waters, the viscous flow around an unappended ship sailing in a straight course along the channel bank and simultaneously undergoing sway motion is numerically simulated by using a CFD-based viscous flow solver. The steady and unsteady RANS equations in conjunction with a RNG k-ε turbulence model are solved by using the dynamic mesh technique and UDF (User-Defined Function). Numerical study is conducted for a KVLCC model. The hydrodynamic lateral force and yaw moment acting on the hull are calculated at different ship-to-bank distance and different water depth. By comparing the numerical results, the effects of ship-to-bank distance on the hydrodynamic forces are analyzed.