Abstract
Accurately predicting the ship’s speed power performance is a key step in calculating the ship’s energy efficiency design index (EEDI). Recently, numerical simulation using CFD has become a reliable method for predicting the performance of full-scale ships. However, the accuracy of full-scale simulation is still difficult to validate, for the high cost of full-scale sea trials. In this study, the in-house URANS solver based on finite difference method and structured overset grid technology is used for simulation. The PISO algorithm is employed to solve the pressure field, and the six-degree-of-freedom motion (6DOF) equation of rigid body is introduced to predict the ship’s 6DOF motion. The level-set method is adopted to capture the change of free surface. Hydrodynamic performance of a 5500DWT tanker is studied. Firstly, the resistance of the tanker model in calm water is caculated and compared with the towing tank results, and the numerical uncertainty is studied, and then, full-scale self-propulsion performance of the tanker has been simulated. Besides, the sea-trial results of the tanker have been analyzed and corrected to the ideal conditions based on the ITTC sea-trial guidelines and the ISO 15016: 2015 standard. The numerical simulation results were directly compared with the corrected results and showed quite good agreement, which verified the reliability of the CFD solver on the simulation of full-scale ship performance.
