Numerical prediction of the ship-to-ship interaction during lightering operations

Abstract

A series of systematic simulations were carried out to study the effect of the relative longitudinal and lateral spacing on the ship-to-ship hydrodynamic interaction during lightering operations. The simulations were performed on two KVLCC2 hulls advancing parallel in deep still water at a low Froude number. The simulation was carried out using OPENFOAM, turbulence was modeled using RANS, the k- SST turbulent model was used to close RANS equations. The validity of the numerical configurations was examined by a published experimental benchmark, the numerical-experimental comparison revealed a good agreement. The surface pressure distribution and the wave pattern surrounding both hulls were presented and analyzed for various relative positions. The changes in the hydrodynamic interaction forces and moments, as a function of the longitudinal and lateral spacings, were computed and analyzed. The positive relative longitudinal position extending to 15% was found to be suitable for conduction lightering operation.