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CFD SIMULATION OF A PLANING HULL

Article  in  International Journal for Traffic and Transport Engineering (IJTTE) · September 2019

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CFD SIMULATION OF A PLANING HULL
Adrian CARAMATESCU1, Costel Iulian MOCANU1
1
“Dunărea de Jos” University of Galați, România

Abstract: The availability of the robust commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD hereafter) software and high speed
computing has led to increased use of CFD for solution of fluid engineering problems across industry and boat building is no
exception. In the recent years, fast composite planing hulls show an increasing interest in the scientific research field. An extensive
range of both civil and military applications require precise data for loading forces acting on the hull surface and the shape of the
wetted area. The current study presents a numerical simulation of the free surface flow around the hull of a composites power boat
used on the Danube River for several speed values ranging between displacement and planing, including the transition period. A
general numerical method to predict planing behavior of a boat is presented in the paper, using the NUMECA/FineMarine
commercial code to compute the flow solution on a multiblock, high-performance parallel computing method. The RANSE VOF
solver computation method is employed to evaluate the flow field in planing condition and to estimate the pressure field on the hull
surface. The flow around planing hulls involves different and complex physical phenomena such as thin spray flow, wave breaking,
air trapping and turbulent boundary layer. In this particular case, an inverted keel design was used in order to achieve a lower
resistance of the hull due to the air entrapment in the semitunnel. The phenomena is captured well and detailed in the illustrations. In
order to validate the results, the trim angle calculated by the CFD software is compared with the trim measurement conducted in full
scale experiment.
Keywords: CFD, planing hulls, full scale experiment, validation, composites hull, river boat.

1. Introduction

The accelerated development of computing and the use of simplified numerical methods to solve the problems of fluid
flow alongside a ship's hull create the premises for CFD methods to be a powerful verification tool in naval
architecture. Wether it comes to leisure boats, commercial applications or naval operations, planing hulls show a
constant interest since their early development in the end of the 18 th century. The resistance of the hull is a problem
solved by an analytical method in a pretty simple approach, with reasonably accurate results (Savitsky, 1969). The hull
geometry particularities however present an important aspect in the matter of trim estimation and with that the
prediction of the planing speed estimation might slightly differ, even when using the improved versions of the initial
method (Savitsky et al, 2007). Recent CFD studies prove a proper evaluation of the trim and resistance estimation
(Caramatescu, 2016)
On another approach, the dynamic pressure estimation and its distribution map on the wetted surface is a complex
problem that can not be solved in an analytical approach. Due to different phases involved, the free surface position is
difficult to predict. Pressure distribution is the load a hull of the boat is subjected to, and usually that is roughly
evaluated by the register rules or more recently by the ISO standards.
This paper presents the ability of the software to perform simulations of a complex hull form in preplaning conditions
(Fr=0.57) to high speed full planing conditions (Fr=1.71).

2. Hull Geometry And Simulating Conditions

The craft that is the subject of this CFD simulation is a leisure composite craft, produced in Romania and used on the
Danube river. A particular shape of the hull is used by the manufacturing company (Plasma SRL) in order to acheive a
shallow draught - especially important in the Danube Delta. The hull presents an inverted keel on a width of 550 mm,
forming a semitunnel with a depth of 50 mm. This section also seeks to reduce the frictional resistance at high speed by
creating an air cushion therefore reducing the wetted surface.
The simulations are carried out for a range of hull speeds between 4 m/s corresponding to full displacement to 12 m/s
when the boat is in full planing condition, declared as the maximum speed of the boat in the corresponding loading
condition.
The main particulars of the craft are presented in Table 1; in Figure 1 there are presented the body lines of the hull,
while in Figure 2 there is shown a rendering of the hull shape.

Table 1
Main particulars of the boat used in the CFD simulation
Length over all 5.65 m
Beam 1.78 m
Depth 0.70 m
Empty draft 0.27 m
Hull weight 220 kg
Max displacement 600 kg
Propulsion power 40 CP

1
Corresponding author: email adrian.caramatescu@ugal.ro
Figure 1. Lines plan of the boat used in the experimental research

Figure 2. A 3D rendering of the CAD model used in the CFD simulation

3. CFD Simulations

The numerical code NUMECA FineMarine was used to perform the planing simulations. The solver uses RANSE VOF
computation method to evaluate the final position of the hull for each simulation speed, having the trim and heave free
while the other motions are blocked. To discretization of the hull surface was done using unstructured monobloc
cartesian grid. The topology of the grid is H-H type, composed of adjacent hexahedral elements. Together with the
computing field, an average of 2.5 million cells were generated for each of the travel speed values. The applicable
boundary conditions are:
- constant velocity equal to the speed of the ship moving at entry into the computing field (upstream);
- sliding conditions at the exit of the computation field (downstream), as well as for the outer boundaries of the domain,
on the free surface and in the symmetry plane;
- on the surface of the body is required the adhesion of the fluid to the wall (no slip).
Grid refinement is done by dividing the cells so that a greater density of cells is present in areas of interest such as the
free surface in the contact area with the hull, spray rails, intersection of the transom with the bottom (Battistin et al,
2003). In Figure 3, there can be seen the refinement of the bow and stern area for the simulation ran at 8 m/s.
For the purpose of accurately modeling the turbulent layer and taking into account the available processing power, the
value of the non dimensional wall function coefficient was chosen y+=5.
 a). aft b). fore
Figure 3. Refinement by dividing cells in areas of interest for turbulent flow phenomena

3.1. Computational Strategy

A number of studies have addressed the issue of solving the numerical flow around a planing hull based on the theory
of potential flow (Wackers et al, 2009), (Ghasemi et al, 2009) but in these cases the disadvantage is that these methods
can be used only in simulations for very high velocities, and can not reproduce the formation of waves and spray
curtains that appear. The subsequent solutions that emerged were based on new approaches to large Froude numbers,
characterized by multiple phases. In these situations, the components of viscous resistance and pressure resistance are
non-linearly correlated with hydrodynamic lifting forces and trim angle (Battistin et al, 2003), (Yumin et al, 2012),
(Azcueta, 2003). The calculation model used by simulatin software used (Numeca FineMarine) is based on the
Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes equations (RANS) for hydrodynamic performance estimation, the VOF method for
estimating the free surface of an incompressible and non-miscible liquid with the second fluid (Caponnetto, M. 2001),
(Queutey et al, 2007) and the turbulence model k-omega.
The equations describing fluid flow alongside a body moving in this fluid are the continuity equation and the Navier-
Stokes equations. These equations model the flow of fluids by viscosity, considering the fluid as Newtonian and the
viscous forces being directly dependent on the velocity gradients. These equations together form a system of partial
nonlinear equations. Considering water as an incompressible liquid with negligible density variations, the two equations
can be written as:
𝜕𝑈𝑖
=0
𝜕𝑥𝑖
𝜕𝑈𝑖 𝜕(𝑈𝑖 𝑈𝑗 ) 𝜕𝜎𝑖𝑗
𝜌 +𝜌 = 𝜌𝑅𝑖 +
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑥𝑗 𝜕𝑥𝑗
where 𝑈𝑖 are the instantaneous components of fluid velocity in the cartesian coordinate system 𝑥𝑖 , 𝜌 is the density
of the water, 𝑡 is time and 𝜎𝑖𝑗 is the tensor of total tensions. One of the most used turbulence models currently applied is
the k-omega model, originally proposed by Wilcox in 1998 and then improved in 2008. In this turbulence model, two
differential equations are used for two variables, k and ω, the first describing kinetic energy and the second specific rate
of kinetic energy conversion into internal thermal energy. The formulation of the two variables are:
𝜕𝑘 𝜕𝑘 𝜕𝑢𝑖 𝜕 𝜕𝑘
+ 𝑈𝑖 = 𝜏𝑖𝑗 − 𝑏 ∗ 𝜅𝜔 + [(𝜈 + 𝑠 ∗ 𝜈𝑇 ) ]
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑥𝑖 𝜕𝑥𝑗 𝜕𝑥𝑖 𝜕𝑥𝑖
𝜕𝜔 𝜕𝜔 𝜔 𝜕𝑢𝑖 𝜕 𝜕𝜔
+ 𝑈𝑖 = 𝑎 𝜏𝑖𝑗 − 𝑏𝜔2 + [(𝜈 + 𝑠𝜈𝑇 ) ]
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑥𝑗 𝑘 𝜕𝑥𝑗 𝜕𝑥𝑗 𝜕𝑥𝑖
To define the free surface demarcation area, a numerical method called Volume Volume Fluid (VOF) is used. In the
sense of this method, based on a fractional volume function α the fluid density and viscosity are modified as follows:
𝜇 = 𝜇𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 + 𝜇𝑎𝑖𝑟 (1 − 𝛼)
𝜌 = 𝜌𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 + 𝜌𝑎𝑖𝑟 (1 − 𝛼),
where μwater and μair are the dynamic viscosity of water and air and ρwater și ρair are the densities of water,
respectively air. The position of the free surface of the liquid is governed by the volumetric fraction transport equation,
and this is solved for each discreet volume cells in the calculation range:
𝜕𝛼
+ ∇(𝛼𝑈) = 0,
𝜕𝑡
where 0 ≤ 𝛼 ≤ 1, 𝑈 is the speed of the flow and ∇ is the cell’s volume.
Solving the equation we can obtain 3 results:
𝛼=0 if the cell si full of air;
𝛼=1 if the cell is full of water;
0<𝛼<1 if the cell contains free surface.
4. Results And Discussions

Pressure distribution calculated on the wetted surface is represented graphically in the series of pictures shown in Figure
4.

4 m/s
5 m/s
6 m/s
7 m/s
8 m/s
9 m/s
10 m/s
11 m/s
12 m/s

Figure 4. Pressure distribution (N/m2) as well as volume fraction for each speed
As it can be observed, the largest pressure gradient is recorded at the stagnation point, at the entry of the hull into the
water. This large pressure area is also properly predicted by the register rules as well as the ISO standards. Numerical
results of the pressure calculated in each of the hull surface cells can be extracted and transferred to a FEM software via
a polynomial interpolation.
As from the air entrapment point of view, the hull design creates the expected air cusion in the semitunnel, delivering
the frictional resistance reduction. Mass fraction maps show the initial formation of the air vortices at 8 m/s, while at 10
m/s the entire bottom of the boat within the semitunnel is separated from the water surface. A different rendering with
the same phenomenon can be seen in Figure 5 below:

Figure 5. Bottom view of the hull showing the free surface depth isocurves. Wetted hull is represented in white for
better contrast

5. Experimental Validation

Trim angle measurements have been conducted for each of the hull speed values considered in this simulation, using a
full scale boat, equipped with an inclinometer, model Turck B2N45H-Q20L60-2LI2-H1151, connected to a
measurement bridge Spider 8. The trials have been conducted in calm water, so as not to viciate the results with the
effect of the encountered waves. Afew aspects of the trials are represented in Figure 6 below.

Figure 6. Experimental trials conducted with full scale model. The instalation of the inclinometer in the bilge (middle)
and the electronic circuit built for the data acquisition (right)

Trim angle measurements recorded during the trials have been compared with the Savitsky (1964) estimation and the
CFD calcullations, showing a reasonable error between the CFD and experiment, while Savitsky method shigtly
underpredicts the trim for the low speed values and overpredicts the trim angle for the range of speeds comprised
between 5 to 10 m/s. The reason of errors for the low speed values is due to inaccurate results of the method for non
planing speed values, while the overprediction errors are due to the geometry particularities not accounted for by this
simplified method, as the semitunnel.

Table 2 Computed trim and experimental data

v θEFD θCFD θSavitsky 5.00
(m/s) (º) (º) (º)
4.50
t (º) Savitsky
4 3,12 3,21 2,54 EFD
5 4,26 4,29 4,35 4.00
6 4,23 4,20 4,72
7 4,14 4,16 4,71 3.50
8 4,04 4,05 4,41
3.00
10 3,59 3,61 3,57
11 3,20 3,25 3,18 2.50 Speed (m/s)
12 2,99 3,03 2,83 3 5 7 9 11 13
Figure 7 Trim variation
 6. Conclusions

As the numerical simuations seem to be a tool with an increased usage in the field of naval architecture, complex
geometries can be studied in the stage of early design, allowing the engineers to perform detailed analyses of flow fields
around a planing hull. Full scale experimental data provides a valuable pool of benchmark values with wich the
numerical simulations can be compared and properly adjusted. While the variety of the software solutions used for this
urpose increases, a numerical valdation must be conducted each time this is possible.
The comparative evaluation of the values of the trim angle of the experiment and of the CFD analysis shows a good
correlation, with variations between 0.3 and 2.8 percent, with a good tracking of the experimental values. The Savitsky
method evaluates the angle of trim using an empirical and rapid calculation but has an error rate between 0.4 and 22.8
percent from the experimental values. The overall trend of the variation of trim angle is the same, increasing during the
transition period and at the beginning of the planing, then stabilizing and decreasing as the speed increases. At the
estimated start of planing, at 5 m/s, the values calculated for the trim are very close, which means that the planing start
point is very well estimated by the Savitsky method.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of the “Dunarea de Jos” University of Galati PhD programme
that provided the research facilities for both experimental and computing researches conducted. Nevertheless, the
boatyard Plasma SRL Galati is to be acknowledged for supplying the fully equipped test boat used on the experiment
and its geometry.

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