URANS Prediction of Ship Hydrodynamics in Head Sea Waves at Zero Forward Speed With Model Testing Validation

The paper presents computations on predicting the hydrodynamics of a generic floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) hull form in regular head sea waves using unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) solver StarCCM+. Initially, model scale simulations were conducted at model test basin water depth (d = 0.8m), with detailed verification and validation study performed to estimate numerical uncertainties. The simulation results were compared with potential flow solutions and validated against experimental studies. Using the verified numerical setup, ship hydrodynamics including wave induced loads, moments as well as ship motion responses in deep water waves (d = 8.0m) have been studied. The computed time history results were decomposed by Fourier series to obtain force/moment and motion transfer functions on the frequency domain. From the obtained results, the presented URANS approach demonstrates slightly better accuracy compared with potential flow (PF) solutions. It is also found that water depth has great influences on the computed wave force and ship motion transfer functions for certain range of wave frequencies.