| Abstract |
A Wave Adaptive Modular Vessel is a ship that uses flexible hull(s) to sail on top of waves instead of going through the waves. This strategy aims at reducing the wave drag of this kind of vessels. In order to further reduce wave drag, these vessels tend to be of very low displacement, therefore relying on multihull configurations to maintain transversal stability and even using inflatable technologies to decrease the weight of the structure.
When those components of drag are reduced so significantly, the viscous components and any other source of energy dissipation induced by the movement of the vessel on the water surface become increasingly important. Because of the inflatable nature of the hulls, there is little room for hydrodynamic shape optimization. As a consequence, when impacting the sea surface it is likely that the hulls will create spray. Therefore, spray might become an important source of energy dissipation in these little optimized hull shapes.
Of concern to the naval industry is the characterization and reduction of these sources of drag in order to increase the range of this class of vessels. There is a need to understand the dynamics of the vessel and the hulls in different sea states and the generation of spray when sailing in a seaway. Also, the possibility of the spray reaching the decks of the hulls is a design issue depending on the particular operations the vessel is set to perform.
In order to understand the dynamics and performance of this new kind of vessels, a software tool needs to be developed. A tool that will be able to characterize the performance of a wave adaptive modular vehicle in spray generating conditions.
Project Objectives
The objective is the development, integration and validation of computational methods and software based on innovative finite element methods, particle-type methods and advanced prepost processing systems to model and study the dynamics of the deformable hulls and superstructure, and the overall hydrodynamic performance of the inflatable hulls with special focus on the spray generating bow sections. The final aim of the study is to predict spray generation and drag performance. |