AN EXTENDED VALIDATION OF FREE CFD APPLICATION TO SHIP RESISTANCE PREDICTION FOR USING IN PRELIMINARY DESIGN STAGE

Nowadays, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has gained high popularity for ship resistance prediction because of its high efficiency and economics. Correspondingly, over the years, the accuracy and ability of CFD have been widely strived to be improved. Therefore, these research objectives are to apply the free CFD application (Autodesk CFD) for predicting pressure distribution, fluid velocity around a ship, and resistance of a ship hull from Fr 0.019 to 0.213 and then to investigate a discrepancy between Autodesk CFD results and experimental results. The Autodesk CFD governs Navier-Stokes’s equations which are solved by using the Finite Element Method (FEM). Then, the experimental work was carried out in the same condition with the computation wherein the resistance test was conducted into four Froude numbers Fr 0.058, 0.116, 0.174, and 0.213. Also, the experimental pressure distribution along the model hull was measured by using the piezoelectric device. The comparisons of the peak pressure coefficient Cp on the bow surface BB (model with a bulbous bow) and WBB (model without bulbous bow) between experimental results and the computational result are given different magnitudes 4.88% and 5.23% respectively. Also, the computational result of the water-resistance coefficient Ct in the increasing of the Fr has a similar tendency with the experimental result for both model BB and WBB. The different value of the Ct between computation and experiment for model BB is averaged 3.59% and then for model WBB, the different value has obtained the average of 4.86%. The overall computational results confirm good agreement with the experimental results. Then, by the differences, the free Autodesk CFD application could be tolerable to be used practically in the preliminary ship design stage.