Developments in the use of large eddy simulation for ship hydrodynamics

Abstract

A summary is given of the work being carried out at the University of Southampton on the use of large-eddy simulation (LES) for marine hydrodynamics. The case of a truncated cylinder on a ground plane has been used to test an in-house code by comparisons with experimental data. This has shown that the LES model performs well in separated and vortical flow regions, but has limitations in its ability to capture boundary layer flow. Further wind tunnel experiments also used particle image velocimetry (PIV) to measure the instantaneous flow field in the stern region of the KRISKO VLCC tanker form. LES simulations of an elliptical body, of similar proportions to the tanker form, illustrate similarities both to the VLCC flow structure and to that of the truncated cylinder. In particular, for all three geometries the instantaneous flow field contains many more large-scale turbulent structures in the wake with a much greater range of vorticity magnitude than in the mean vorticity field. This suggests that LES may give more accurate results than a steady RANS method for ship flows, if the computational cost of resolving the boundary layer can be reduced. Initial simulations of a two-dimensional cylinder flow have been carried out using detached-eddy simulation 9DES), a hybrid RANS/LES technique, which is less demanding of grid resolution than full LES, and which could offer such a route.

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ORCID for S.R. Turnock: orcid.org/0000-0001-6288-0400

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