In this paper, two novel numerical computation methods are introduced which have been recently developed at Research Institute for Applied Mechanics ( RIAM ), Kyushu University, for strongly nonlinear wave-body interaction problems, such as ship motions in rough seas and resulting green-water impact on deck. The first method is the CIP-based Cartesian grid method, in which the free surface flow is treated as a multi-phase flow which is solved using a Cartesian grid. The second method is the MPS method, which is a so-called particle method and hence no grid is used. The features and calculation procedures of these numerical methods are described. One validation computation against a newly conducted experiment on a dam break problem, which is also described in this paper, is presented.

In this paper, the effects of forward speed on the lateral vibration of a slender structure in an infinite fluid are considered. By equating the bending stress of the structure with the hydrodynamic force acting on it, the equation which governs the fluid-structure interaction of a slender structure both vibrating and moving in water is obtained. Numerical results show that the influence of forward speed on the vibration of a slender structure in water is significant. It behaves like damping, reducing both natural frequencies and responses significantly.

In recent years, demands for car transportation by a ship have been increasing with favorable economic conditions in auto sector, and the need of a pure car carrier (PCC) has grown quickly. A PCC needs huge parking space but smaller displacement since a car is comparatively light for its volume. As a result, almost all PCCs have wide breadth, shallow draft and huge structure above the water surface. These features cause some technical issues of a PCC, like lack of stability, effect of strong winds on its resistance, difficulty of course keeping in rough seas, difficulty of berthing in strong winds, and so on. To overcome these technical issues, one of the authors has proposed a new concept for a PCC. This is a trimaran PCC which has very limited transverse bulkheads in the center hull by using two side hulls as fenders. In the present research, wind forces acting on a scale model of the trimaran PCC were measured in the towing tank with a wind generator at Osaka Prefecture University. Furthermore, in order to clarify the characteristics of wind pressure on the trimaran, height and width of tunnels which are between a main hull and side hulls were changed. And then, in order to imitate a real ship, we used wind reduction technology of corner-cut design for accommodation house of the ship. Moreover, the wind pressure acting on the trimaran was compared with that on a mono-hull PCC. Using these experimental and theoretical results, an estimation method of wind pressure acting on the trimaran PCC is deduced.

The effect of hydrostatic pressure on the vibration dispersion characteristics of fluid-shell coupled structures was studied. Both fluid-loaded cylindrical shells and fluid-filled cylindrical shells were considered. Numerical analysis was applied to solve the dispersion equations for shells filled with or loaded with fluid at various hydrostatic pressures. The results for external pressure showed that non-dimensional axial wave numbers are nearly independent when the pressure is below the critical level. The influence of internal pressure on wave numbers was found significant for the real branch s=1 and the complex branches of dispersion curves. The presence of internal pressure increased the cut on frequencies for the branch s=1 for high order wave modes.

In the present paper, a new trimaran Pure Car Carrier (PCC) is proposed and a feasibility study on the ship is carried out. In this study, first, the effective horse power (EHP)/car of the PCC running in still water is predicted. By comparing the predicted EHP/car with that of a conventional mono-hull PCC, it is found that the trimaran PCC is superior to the conventional mono-hull PCC at rather higher speed. As ship speed increases, the reduction of the resistance of the trimaran is bigger. It is also found that at common service speed of PCCs, the EHP/car of a small PCC is lower than that of a conventional PCC. Secondly, the optimal L/B of a main-hull of the trimaran PCC in still water is determined. The optimal L/B of the main-hull varies with ship speed and size because the wave resistance decreases but the frictional resistance increases as L/B of the hull increases. As ship size increases, the optimal L/B of the main-hull of the trimaran PCC decreases. Finally, the increase of the resistance of PCCs running in strong wind is predicted. The results show that drift angle and speed reduction of the trimaran PCC are much smaller than the conventional mono-hull PCC because of large side force created by three demi-hulls.

Ships which have large structures above water surface, such as pure car carriers (PCCs) and container vessels, have large speed reduction by wind pressure. In the present study, the running speed of a large PCC with two or more sails for using wind power is simulated. The simulated results demonstrate that the ship can keep a constant service speed even in winds of 20m/s except head and bow winds. This sail system can shorten annual average navigation time by about 4 hours per voyage.

Applications of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) to the maritime industry continue to grow with the increasing development of computers. Numerical approaches have evolved to a level of accuracy which allows them to be applied for hydrodynamic computations in industry areas. Hydrodynamic tests, especially planar-motion-mechanism (PMM) tests are simulated by CFD software –FLUENT, and all of the corresponding hydrodynamic coefficients are obtained, which satisfy the need of establishing the simulation system to evaluate maneuverability of vehicles during the autonomous underwater vehicle scheme design stage. The established simulation system performed well in tests.

To study wave-current actions on 3-D bodies a time-domain numerical model was established using a higher-order boundary element method (HOBEM). By assuming small flow velocities, the velocity potential could be expressed for linear and higher order components by perturbation expansion. A 4th-order Runge-Kutta method was applied for time marching. An artificial damping layer was adopted at the outer zone of the free surface mesh to dissipate scattering waves. Validation of the numerical method was carried out on run-up, wave exciting forces, and mean drift forces for wave-currents acting on a bottom-mounted vertical cylinder. The results were in close agreement with the results of a frequency-domain method and a published time-domain method. The model was then applied to compute wave-current forces and run-up on a Seastar mini tension-leg platform.

Breaking waves can have tremendous destructive impact on vertical walls, yet they are poorly understood. By using particle imaging velocimetry (PIV) technology and high-precision pressure transducers, actual breaking wave loads on vertical walls were studied. By simultaneously comparing the flow field structure and wave pressure, the mechanisms of breaking wave pressure could be analyzed. The probability distribution of the peak value of the first impact of a breaking wave was investigated. The results showed that the impact pressure p is mainly distributed in the range of 0.25-2.75 , with the greatest possible probability at = 0.75.

To solve the dimensional limitations of physical models in tests, an equivalent water depth truncated design for a classical SPAR working in 913 m water was investigated. The water depth was reduced to 736m and then to 552m. As this was done, the mooring line lengths, EA value, and mass per meter were adjusted. Truncation rules and formulas for parameters and truncation factors were proposed. SPAR static characteristics were made to be consistent with those at full water depth. Then further time-domain coupled analysis was carried out for the SPAR when the mooring system experienced waves. The mooring lines were simulated by quasi-static method. Global responses and mooring line forces were found to agree well with test results for a prototype at that water depth. The truncation method proved to be robust and reliable.

Wind power has made rapid progress and should gain significance as an energy resource, given growing interest in renewable energy and clean energy. Offshore wind energy resources have attracted significant attention, as, compared with land-based wind energy resources, offshore wind energy resources are more promising candidates for development. Sea winds are generally stronger and more reliable and with improvements in technology, the sea has become a hot spot for new designs and installation methods for wind turbines. In the present paper, based on experience building offshore wind farms, recommended foundation styles have been examined. Furthermore, wave effects have been investigated. The split installation and overall installation have been illustrated. Methods appropriate when installing a small number of turbines as well as those useful when installing large numbers of turbines were analyzed. This investigation of installation methods for wind turbines should provide practical technical guidance for their installation.

This paper presents an improved unstructured grid immersed boundary method. The advantages of both immersed boundary method and body fitted grids which are generated by unstructured grid technology are used to enhance the computation efficiency of fluid structure interaction in complex domain. The Navier-Stokes equation was discretized spacially with collocated finite volume method and Euler implicit method in time domain. The rigid body motion was simulated by immersed boundary method in which the fluid and rigid body interface interaction was dealt with VOS (volume of solid) method. A new VOS calculation method based on graph was presented in which both immersed boundary points and cross points were collected in arbitrary order to form a graph. The method is verified with flow past oscillating cylinder.

In order to get some useful parameters for grid generation of catamaran, the CFD software FLUENT is used to investigate the main effects of grid generation on flow field calculation. The influences of some elements are investigated with a series of calculations in the present paper, and some alteratives are proposed. The proposed alteratives based on the analysis of the effects are used for a catamaran resistance calculation, comparisons of the calculated results with experimental data show good agreement. It shows that the research result of this paper is useful for the numerical calculation of catamaran.

Sloshing phenomenon in the liquid cargo carriers has caught the attention of researchers as the interaction between the sloshing waves and structure is one of the key point and difficulty in the study of sloshing. In this paper, we captured the free surface with a volume of fluid (VOF) method and then calculated the motions and responses of the structure by adopting the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations for the whole fluid domain. With the use of user defined functions (UDF) in Fluent, the interaction between fluid and structure was then simulated. As a reasonable simplification, the authors studied the response of a single cantilever in a tank under sloshing loads; Further study should pay more attention to the mechanisms of interaction between sloshing waves and elastic structures.

Problems experienced during Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) tandem offloading operations were investigated. The aim of this research was to improve the reliability of such systems, and it needed a means to assess them. Time-domain simulation and analysis of offloading systems was performed using the multi-body mooring software ARIANE 7.0. Hydrodynamic interaction between the vessels was considered. The responses of the offloading system in different loading cases, different parameters of offloading hawsers and the effects of challenging environmental conditions were calculated. There was a focus on the problems of relative motion between the two bodies and its effects on the intensity of hawser forces. Minimum relative distance, maximum relative headings and maximum tension in the hawsers of offloading systems were obtained by time-domain analysis. The time-domain analysis was effective and comparative study can be used to optimize parameters of the system and extend operating limits.

Parametric resonance can lead to dangerously large rolling motions, endangering the ship, cargo and crew. The QR-factorization method for calculating (LCEs) Lyapunov Characteristic Exponents was introduced; parametric resonance stability of ships in longitudinal waves was then analyzed using LCEs. Then the safe and unsafe regions of target ships were then identified. The results showed that this method can be used to analyze ship stability and to accurately identify safe and unsafe operating conditions for a ship in longitudinal waves.

Fish are able to make good use of vortices. In a complex flow field, many fish continue to maintain both efficient cruising and maneuverability. Traditional man-made propulsion systems perform poorly in complex flow fields. With fish-like propulsion systems, it is important to pay more attention to complex flow fields. In this paper, the influence of vortices on the hydrodynamic performance of 2-D flapping-foils was investigated. The flapping-foil heaved and pitched under the influence of inflow vortices generated by an oscillating D-section cylinder. A numerical simulation was run based the finite volume method, using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software FLUENT with Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations applied. In addition, dynamic mesh technology and post processing systems were also fully used. The calculations showed four modes of interaction. The hydrodynamic performance of flapping-foils was analyzed and the results compared with experimental data. This validated the numerical simulation, confirming that flapping-foils can increase efficiency by absorbing energy from inflow vortices.

Thrust bearing is a key component of the propulsion system of a ship. It transfers the propulsive forces from the propeller to the ship’s hull, allowing the propeller to push the ship ahead. The performance of a thrust bearing pad is critical. When the thrust bearing becomes damaged, it can cause the ship to lose power and can also affect its operational safety. For this paper, the distribution of the pressure field of a thrust pad was calculated with numerical method, applying Reynolds equation. Thrust bearing properties for loads were analyzed, given variations in outlet thickness of the pad and variations between the load and the slope of the pad. It was noticed that the distribution of pressure was uneven. As a result, increases of both the outlet thickness and the slope coefficient of the pad were able to improve load bearing capability.