Study on Hydrodynamic Forces Acting on Tanker Hull with Consideration of Various Vertical Centers of Gravity in Drift Test

Abstract

An investigation was conducted to determine whether the changes in the maneuvering forces and moments acting on a hull could be affected by changing the vertical center of gravity (VCG) of a tanker. The changes in the hydrodynamic forces and moment acting on a hull according to the restraint conditions of motion were examined using CFD for cases where the VCG was located at the design draught (100% of draught), under the design draught (75% of draught), and at half of the design draught (50% of draught). The following motion restraint conditions were selected: (1) fixed restraints for everything; (2) heave, pitch, and roll free restraint; and (3) heave and pitch free restraints. It was found that restraint condition (2) had the best agreement with the model experiment results. In addition, it was found that the hydrodynamic forces and moment acting on the hull with restraint condition (2) could be greatly affected in the model tests and CFD calculations by the various configurations for the vertical center of gravity of the hull. Finally, it was concluded that the location of the vertical center of gravity of the hull could be an important factor when more accurate hydrodynamic maneuvering forces and moment are estimated.

Keywords

• Vertical center of gravity(VCG)
• Manoeuvrability
• Computational fluid dynamics
• Manoeuvring hydrodynamics
• Roll motion
• 3 Degree of freedom(3DOF)