Computational Investigation of Seakeeping Performance of a Surfaced Submarine in Regular Waves

Abstract

A submarine is optimized to operate below the water surface because it spends most of its time in a submerged condition. However, the performance in free surface conditions is also important because it is unavoidable for port departure and arrival. Generally, potential flow theory is used for seakeeping analysis of a surface ship and is known for excellent numerical accuracy. In the case of a submarine, the accuracy of potential theory is high underwater but is low in free surface conditions because of the nonlinearity near the free surface area. In this study, the seakeeping performance of a Canadian Victoria Class submarine in regular waves was investigated to improve the numerical accuracy in free surface conditions by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The results were compared to those of model tests. In addition, the potential theory software Hydrostar developed by Bureau Veritas was also used for seakeeping performance to compare with CFD results. From the calculation results, it was found that the seakeeping analysis by using CFD gives good results compared with those of potential theory. In conclusion, seakeeping analysis based on CFD can be a good solution for estimating the seakeeping performance of submarines in free surface conditions.

Keywords

• submarine
• seakeeping
• cfd
• potential theory
• regular waves
• free surface conditions