A Zonal CFD Approach for Fully Nonlinear Simulations of Two Vessels in Launch and Recovery Operations
Lead Research Organisation:
Plymouth University
Department Name: Sch of Engineering
Abstract
Launch and recovery of small vehicles from a large vessel is a common operation in maritime sectors, such as launching and recovering unmanned underwater vehicles from a patrol of research vessel or launching and recovering lifeboats from offshore platforms or ships. Such operations are often performed in harsh sea conditions. The recent User Inspired Academic Challenge Workshop on Maritime Launch and Recovery, held in July 2014 and coordinated by BAE systems, identified various challenges associated with safe launch and recovery of off-board, surface and sub-surface assets from vessels while underway in severe sea conditions. One of them is the lack of an accurate and efficient modelling tool for predicting the hydrodynamic loads on and the motion of two floating bodies, such as vessels of different size which may be coupled by a non-rigid link, in close proximity in harsh seas. Such a tool may be employed to minimise the risk of collisions and unacceptable motions, and to facilitate early testing of new concepts and systems. It may also be used to estimate hydrodynamic loads during the deployment of a smaller vessel (for example, a lifeboat) and during recovery of a smaller vessel from the deck of a larger vessel. The difficulties associated with development of such tools lie in the following aspects: (1) the water waves in harsh sea states have to be simulated; (2) the motion of the small vehicle and change in its wetted surface during launch or recovery can be very large, possibly moving from totally dry in air to becoming entirely submerged; (3) the viscous effects may play an important role and cannot be ignored, and will affect the coupling between ocean waves and motion of the vehicles. Existing methods and tools available to the industry cannot deal with all of these issues together and typically require very high computational resources.
This project will develop an accurate and efficient numerical model that can be applied routinely for the analysis of the motion and loadings of two bodies in close proximity with or without physical connection in high sea-states, which of course can be employed to analyse the launch and recovery process of a small vehicle from a large vessel and to calculate the hydrodynamics during the process. This will be achieved building upon the recent developed numerical methods and computer codes by the project partners and also the success of the past and ongoing collaborative work between them. In addition, the project will involve several industrial partners to ensure the delivery of the project and to promote impact.
This project will develop an accurate and efficient numerical model that can be applied routinely for the analysis of the motion and loadings of two bodies in close proximity with or without physical connection in high sea-states, which of course can be employed to analyse the launch and recovery process of a small vehicle from a large vessel and to calculate the hydrodynamics during the process. This will be achieved building upon the recent developed numerical methods and computer codes by the project partners and also the success of the past and ongoing collaborative work between them. In addition, the project will involve several industrial partners to ensure the delivery of the project and to promote impact.
Planned Impact
This industry inspired and initiated project will address one of the key challenges faced for the certification of safe launch and recovery of assets from maritime platforms while underway in severe sea conditions by developing an accurate and fast prediction tool for the motion of two bodies of different sizes in close proximity in high sea-states. Such a tool is essential to identify and reduce the risks of collision and unacceptable motions during those operations (civil or military) hence the safety of personnel and asset integrity. It is also needed for early testing of new concepts and systems for marine launch and recovery operations to identify suitability and safety issues. Scientifically, an accurate and efficient modelling of the flow problem involving violent motion of water waves and its interaction with two floating bodies in relative and potentially arbitrary motions remains challenging, and to achieve this a number of novel CFD techniques have been proposed and will be implemented during the project as outlined in the Case for Support section of the proposal.
Direct beneficiaries of the developed integrated CFD tool and the new wave tank test data sets will be engineering companies/consultancy bodies and Classification Societies involved in the design and testing of new marine launch and recovery systems and both civil and military units involved in such operations. The new CFD techniques and associated HPC implementations will also benefit the general CFD community as a whole (other researchers in academia or commercial organisations working in any area involving free surface flows, more generally within CFD and related areas of computational physics).
To ensure the maximum impact of the project a number of routes for its dissemination have been identified and further details are given in the Pathways to impact document:
1. Direct engagement with project partners
2. Engagement with other projects within the Launch and Recovery inspired research
3. Contact with end users and wider scientific community through a dedicated website/wiki and social media
4. Training in the use of model and public engagement through joint workshops with CCP-WSI
5. Scientific and technical conferences
6. Journal publications
Direct beneficiaries of the developed integrated CFD tool and the new wave tank test data sets will be engineering companies/consultancy bodies and Classification Societies involved in the design and testing of new marine launch and recovery systems and both civil and military units involved in such operations. The new CFD techniques and associated HPC implementations will also benefit the general CFD community as a whole (other researchers in academia or commercial organisations working in any area involving free surface flows, more generally within CFD and related areas of computational physics).
To ensure the maximum impact of the project a number of routes for its dissemination have been identified and further details are given in the Pathways to impact document:
1. Direct engagement with project partners
2. Engagement with other projects within the Launch and Recovery inspired research
3. Contact with end users and wider scientific community through a dedicated website/wiki and social media
4. Training in the use of model and public engagement through joint workshops with CCP-WSI
5. Scientific and technical conferences
6. Journal publications
Organisations
- Plymouth University (Lead Research Organisation)
- ESI Group (Collaboration)
- University of Groningen (Collaboration)
- Royal National Lifeboat Institution (Collaboration)
- Zenotech (Collaboration)
- Systems Engineering & Assessment Ltd (Collaboration)
- BAE Systems (United Kingdom) (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- Systems Engineering and Assessment (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- ESI (United States) (Project Partner)
- Zenotech (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Royal National Lifeboat Institution (Project Partner)
Publications
Brown S
(2022)
Investigation of wave-driven hydroelastic interactions using numerical and physical modelling approaches
in Applied Ocean Research
Hu Z
(2016)
Numerical wave tank study of extreme waves and wave-structure interaction using OpenFoam®
in Ocean Engineering
Hu Z
(2017)
Investigations of offshore breaking wave impacts on a large offshore structure
in Journal of Fluids and Structures
Ma Z
(2016)
Numerical investigation of air enclosed wave impacts in a depressurised tank
in Ocean Engineering
Wang J
(2016)
A hybrid model for simulating rogue waves in random seas on a large temporal and spatial scale
in Journal of Computational Physics
Xie N
(2019)
Experimental study of wave loads on a small vehicle in close proximity to a large vessel
in Applied Ocean Research
Xie N
(2019)
A numerical and experimental investigation of the effect of side walls on hydrodynamic model testing in a wave flume
in Ocean Engineering
Z. Ma,
(2016)
Numerical simulation of water entry of 2D wedges.
Description | Physical wave tank experiments designed for launch and recovery and vessel vessel interactions. Offshore supply vessel used as the large vessel and lifeboat for the small vessel. Models (1:20 scale) constructed and experiments designed for June 2017. A new set of experiments has been carried out to investigate vessel-vessel interaction of a large and small vessel at different spacings under different wave conditions, wave directions and with the vessels fixed and free to move in heave and pit |
Exploitation Route | Detailed information from experiments of vessel vessel interaction. Validation data provided for numerical simulations. The datasets will become useful for other researchers to use for validation. New code developments were also presented for the simulation of wave structure interaction of flexible structures; overset methods for large body motions; coupling of two different solver types within the fluid domain; absorbing wave boundary conditions. The new code developments will be useful to ot |
Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine |
URL | https://collaborate.plymouth.ac.uk/sites/cerg/Pages/LRProj_Home.aspx |
Description | The findings from the Zonal CFD project have been presented and discussed at two industry workshops: the first with the Society for Underwater Technology Group for Environmental Forces (SUT-GEF) meeting on Thursday 26/1/2017 at City University, London and the second combined with the SUT-GEF meeting on Thursday 25/1/2018 at City University, London, and then again final results were presented at the SUT-GEF meeting at City University in January 2019. Physical data obtained from the Fundamentals and Reliability of Offshore Structure Hydrodynamics (FROTH) [EP/J012866/1] has been used in CCP-WSI Blind Test Series 1 and CCP-WSI Comparative Study 1. The CCP-WSI Blind Test and Comparative Workshops have been devised to provide a better understanding of present numerical modelling standards and inform future development. The CCP-WSI Blind Test Series 1 Test Case is entitled: Focused wave impact with a fixed FPSO. In these test cases a fixed scale-model FPSO is subjected to focused wave events with a range of steepness and incident wave angles. The purpose of these experiments is to assess factors, such as wave steepness and direction, effecting the forces and run-up on FPSO hulls due to extreme wave events. The CCP-WSI Blind Test Series 1 has been completed in conjunction with the ISOPE 2018 conference and consisted of 3 special sessions, and 11 presentations from a group of 13 international academic and industrial participants. Dr Shiqiang Yan won the 'Session Organizer Award (CNOOC-CSL Prize)' for initiating the CCP-WSI Sessions. The final report, and a selection of submissions, are published in the IJOPE. The physical modelling data has been made available for future benchmarking exercises under 'CCP-WSI Test Case 003'. CCP-WSI Comparative Study 2 is entitled: Breaking wave impact on a 'deformable' truncated vertical wall. These test cases consider offshore breaking wave impacts on a 'deformable' truncated vertical wall (designed to represent a hull section of an FPSO at laboratory scale). The physical modelling data has been made available for future benchmarking exercises under 'CCP-WSI Test Case 013'. |
First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Energy,Environment,Transport |
Impact Types | Economic |
Description | Extreme Loading on FOWT under Complex Environmental Conditions |
Amount | £332,158 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/T00424X/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2020 |
End | 03/2023 |
Description | Extreme Loading on Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWTs) under Complex Environmental Conditions |
Amount | £63,391 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/T004339/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 11/2019 |
End | 11/2023 |
Description | Extreme Loading on Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWTs) under Complex Environmental Conditions |
Amount | £44,275 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/T004274/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2020 |
End | 03/2023 |
Description | Extreme Loading on Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWTs) under Complex Environmental Conditions |
Amount | £389,691 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/T004177/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2020 |
End | 03/2023 |
Description | BAE Systems |
Organisation | BAE Systems |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Research collaboration |
Collaborator Contribution | member of Industry Advisory Board; attendance at project meetings |
Impact | review of project proposal; advice at project progress meetings |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | ESI Group |
Organisation | ESI Group |
Country | France |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Research collaboration; development of software and experiments. |
Collaborator Contribution | Member of industry Advisory Board, provision of software licences |
Impact | review of research proposal; attendance at project progress meetings and discussion |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | RNLI |
Organisation | Royal National Lifeboat Institution |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Industry Advisory Board member for Zonal CFD project, EP/N008847 |
Collaborator Contribution | Industry Advisory Board member for Zonal CFD project, EP/N008847 |
Impact | Advisory Board member, assisted with proposal preparation and attends research progress meetings. |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Veldman Groningen |
Organisation | University of Groningen |
Country | Netherlands |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Experimental data set for wave structure interaction experiments; numerical tools for hydroelastic analysis; application of CFD to wave structure interaction and offshore wave impact. |
Collaborator Contribution | Contribution to research discussions; contributions to Project Steering Group. |
Impact | Research publications. |
Start Year | 2012 |
Description | Zenotech |
Organisation | Zenotech |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | research collaboration |
Collaborator Contribution | staff time and travel to attend project progress meetings and join the project Industry Advisory Board |
Impact | review of proposal; contribution to project progress meetings |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | project industry advisory Board Member SEA ltd |
Organisation | Systems Engineering & Assessment Ltd |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Collaborative research project |
Collaborator Contribution | Member of the project Industry Advisory Board, attend project meetings and help steer research |
Impact | Review project proposal; attend project progress meetings |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Project meeting with Industry Partners |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Research Meeting with industry partners; discuss project results and their significance to the issue of autonomous control of vessels n launch and recovery operations. Discussion of potential follow on projects.. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | SUT GEF Meeting Jan 2017 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Project meeting and SUT GEF (Society of Underwater Technologies Group for Environmental Forces) Industry Workshop at City University 26 January 2017 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | SUT-GEF meeting on Thursday 25/1/2018 at City University, London |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The findings from the Zonal CFD project were presented at the Society for Underwater Technology Group for Environmental Forces (SUT-GEF) meeting on Thursday 25/1/2018 at City University, London. An audience of approximately 30 industry and academic members attended and participated in the event. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | SUTGEF Meeting at City University 17/01/2019 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Project results were presented at the Society for Underwater Technology Group for Environmental Forces meeting at City University in January 2019. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |