A Zonal CFD Approach for Fully Nonlinear Simulations of Two Vessels in Launch and Recovery Operations

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 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