Typically, study of hydrodynamic interaction between vessels navigating in close proximity to each other is limited to hydrodynamics of bare hulls. Meanwhile, ship propulsors, especially heavily loaded, which may happen in accelerating motion, can alter substantially the flow and distribution of pressure on the hulls which can be viewed as generalization of the thrust deduction phenomenon.
The 3D doubled body potential interaction code based on the source panel method developed earlier by the authors has been enhanced to include the effect of a propeller on each of the interacting ships under the assumption that the propeller jets (slipstreams) are not involved into the interaction. Each propeller is simulated by a disk of sinks further approximated with a polygon composed of identical triangular panels with identical constant sink density linked to the thrust of the propulsor according to the actuator disk theory.
Comparative computations were carried out for two identical tanker vessels in the close-proximity overtaking manoeuvre at various values of the loading coefficient of each propeller. The loading coefficient is not supposed to be necessarily defined by the steady propulsion point. Numerical results demonstrate that a heavily loaded propeller substantially modifies the pressure distribution on both hulls resulting in alteration of the hydrodynamic interaction loads, especially of the surge force and yaw moment.