CFD Application for Prediction of Ship Added Resistance in Waves

This paper deals with the added resistance of a ship in waves using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The ship added resistance is one of the key considerations in the design of energy-efficient ship. In this study, the added resistance of a LNG carrier in head waves is computed using a CFD code to consider the nonlinearity and the viscous effects. The unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equation (RANS) is numerically solved and the volume of fluid (VOF) approach is used to simulate the free surface flows. The length of incident wave varies from half the ship length to twice the ship length. To investigate the nonlinearity effect, both the linear wave condition and the nonlinear wave condition are considered. The heave and pitch motions are calculated along with the added resistance, and the wave contours are obtained. Grid convergence test is conducted thoroughly to achieve the converged motion and resistance values. The calculated results are compared and validated with experimental data.