The heel-induced sway force and yaw moment of a high-speed craft in following regular waves

The coupling between heel and the loads in the horizontal plane is usually neglected in manoeuvrability studies. However, the heel–sway and heel–yaw coupling can play an important role in potentially unsafe conditions, such as in a following sea. In these conditions, small fast vessels experience dynamic instabilities which threaten their ability to maintain a straight course. In this study, the coupling between the static heel and the sway force and yaw moment was investigated for a high-speed craft. The objective of this work is to understand the effect of heel on the manoeuvring in following waves, and to predict this effect by means of numerical tools for different combinations of wave characteristics and vessel speeds. A dedicated captive model test campaign was conducted to evaluate the manoeuvring loads in sway and yaw when the craft has a heel angle in following regular waves. The tests were performed in the towing tank of Delft University of Technology. The heel-induced loads depend strongly on the longitudinal position of the vessel in the wave, and they significantly differ from the heel-induced loads in calm water at the respective speed. The data carried out in the model tests were used to describe empirically the heel-induced loads for several combinations of ship speeds and wave characteristics. This empirical description was meant to correct a 3D potential flow boundary element method (BEM), with the objective of being able to predict these loads on a wide range of conditions. The corrected 3D BEM was used to simulate the behaviour of the high-speed craft in following regular waves. This analysis showed that the heel-induced loads have the effect of stabilizing the ship to the inception of dynamic instabilities in the following sea.