CFD Simulations of Self-Propulsion and Turning Circle Maneuver up to 90° of Ship in Waves

In the present work, a Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS)-overset method is used to numerically investigate self-propulsion and turning circle maneuver in waves for a container ship. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver naoe-FOAM-SJTU is used for the numerical computations of the fully appended Duisburg Test Case ship model. Overset grids are used to handle the motions of the ship hull appended with the propeller and the rudder. Open source toolbox waves2Foam is used to prevent wave reflection in the computational domain. The current numerical method is validated by comparing the ship speed in the self-propulsion case between CFD and Experimental Fluid Dynamics (EFD). Predicted ship 6-DOF motions, hydrodynamic forces, free surfaces, and inflow of the propeller are presented. The propulsion characteristic is mainly studied. Assuming the thrust identification method works even in unsteady conditions, the wake fraction and propulsion efficiency are discussed. The effect of orbital motion of water particle and ship motion on the propulsion performance are identified. In conclusion, the present RANS-overset method is a reliable approach to directly simulate self-propulsion and turning circle maneuver in waves.