CFD Method to Study Hydrodynamics Forces Acting on Ship Navigating in Confined Curved Channels with Current

The bending section of the restricted channel is one of the most accident-prone areas for inland ships, but few clear investigations on the curvature effect have been conducted till now. Therefore, this paper presents numerical research of the curvature effect in confined bending channels on ship hydrodynamics. The unsteady Navier-Stokes equations closed by the realizable K-Epsilon turbulence model are utilized to simulate the flow around a three-dimensional inland ship. A mesh verification analysis is performed to select the most suitable grid size, and the CFD model is validated in a regular confined channel by comparing the numerical resistance forces with those from experiments. The impacts of the channel slope angle, channel radius, ship type (ship length), and current velocity in curved channels on ship hydrodynamics are studied with their influence patterns and mechanisms being analyzed in detail. Results show that channel radius only affects the yaw moment much, whereas ship hydrodynamics are greatly sensitive to the slope angle only when the angle is below a certain threshold value. Compared with short ships, much stronger spiral currents can be noticed passing through long ships in the same channel configuration. Current velocity affects both resistance and yaw moment a lot, with a critical current velocity for sway force.

Automated summary

This study investigates the hydrodynamics of ships in confined bending channels using numerical simulations. The results show that the channel radius has a significant effect on the yaw moment, while the slope angle only affects the hydrodynamics below a certain threshold. Additionally, longer ships experience stronger spiral currents compared to shorter ships in the same channel configuration. The velocity of the current significantly affects both the resistance and yaw moment, with a critical velocity for sway force.