3-D seakeeping analysis with water on deck and slamming. Part 1: Numerical solver

A three-dimensional seakeeping numerical solver is developed to handle occurrence and effects of water-on-deck and bottom slamming. It couples (A) the rigid-ship motions with (B) the water flowing along the deck and (C) bottom slamming events. Problem A is studied with a 3-D weakly nonlinear potential flow solver based on the weak-scatterer hypothesis. Problem B, and so local and global induced green-water loads, are investigated by assuming shallow-water conditions onto the deck. Problem C is examined through a Wagner-type wedge-impact analysis. Within the coupling between A and B: the external seakeeping problem furnishes the initial and boundary conditions to the in-deck solver in terms of water level and velocity along the deck profile; in return the shallow-water problem makes available to the seakeeping solver the green-water loads to be introduced as additional loads into the rigid-motion equations. Within the coupling between A and C: the instantaneous ship configuration and its kinematic and dynamic conditions with respect to the incident waves will fix the parameters for the local impact problem; in return the slamming and water-entry pressures are integrated in the vessel region of interest and introduced as additional loads into the rigid-motion equations. The resulting numerical solver can study efficiently the ship interaction with regular and irregular sea states and the forward motion with limited speed of the vessel. This is crucial to perform reliable and feasible statistical investigations of vessel behavior. Main elements of the solver are described and validated against reference numerical solutions and model tests. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.