Hydrodynamic Performance Prediction of Stepped Planing Craft Using CFD and ANNs

In the present paper,the hydrodynamic performance of stepped planing craft is investigated by computational fluid dynamics(CFD)analysis.For this purpose,the hydrodynamic resistances of without step,one-step,and two-step hulls of Cougar planing craft are evaluated under different distances of the second step and LCG from aft,weight loadings,and Froude numbers(Fr).Our CFD results are appropriately validated against our conducted experimental test in National Iranians Marine Laboratory(NIMALA),Tehran,Iran.Then,the hydrodynamic resistance of intended planing crafts under various geometrical and physical conditions is predicted using artificial neural networks(ANNs).CFD analysis shows two different trends in the growth rate of resistance to weight ratio.So that,using steps for planing craft increases the resistance to weight ratio at lower Fr and decreases it at higher Fr.Additionally,by the increase of the distance between two steps,the resistance to weight ratio is decreased and the porpoising phenomenon is delayed.Furthermore,we obtained the maximum mean square error of ANNs output in the prediction of resistance to weight ratio equal to 0.0027.Finally,the predictive equation is suggested for the resistance to weight ratio of stepped planing craft according to weights and bias of designed ANNs.

Effects of fixed and dynamic mesh methods on simulation of stepped planing craft

In the present study,we investigate the effects of fixed and dynamic mesh methods on CFD simulation of stepped planing craft.To this accomplishment,three different body forms of without step,one step,and two step Cougar planing crafts are considered.Three-dimensional CFD analysis is conducted using finite volume method(FVM).Volume of fluid(VOF)model is used for free surface modeling.Overset mesh technique(dynamic mesh)and fixed mesh method are conducted by STAR CCM and ANSYS CFX CFD toolboxes,respectively.CFD results of total hydrodynamic resistance and dynamic trim angle are compared against our measured experimental data to assess the performance and accuracy of considered mesh methods.For more details,pressure distributions,wave patterns and streamlines around the hull models are also presented.Based on our CFD results,dynamic mesh method is more accurate and precise to simulate the stepped planing crafts compared to fixed mesh method.However,computational cost for dynamic mesh method is significantly greater than the fixed mesh method.We also found that the porpoising phenomenon is only detectable using dynamic mesh method in simulation of stepped Cougar planing craft.©2018 Shanghai Jiaotong University.Published by Elsevier B.V.