Numerical Simulations of Static Rudder Tests Based on Two Propeller Modeling Methods

Abstract Simulating the captive model tests using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) technique to obtain the hydrodynamic derivatives and hull-propeller-rudder interaction coefficients has been proved to be an effective method for establishing the mathematical model of ship maneuvering motion. To simulate the captive model tests for a fully appended ship model, the key issue is to choose a suitable modeling method for the propeller to calculate the hydrodynamic force on the ship with high efficiency and enough accuracy. In this paper, the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations are solved by using CFD method to simulate the static rudder tests of the fully appended KRISO ship KVLCC2 model, with the propeller being treated by the Multiple Reference Frames (MRF) method and the Sliding Mesh (SM) method and the sinkage and trim being taken into consideration. The reliability of the numerical method is verified by comparing the computed hydrodynamic results with the available benchmark data. The flow field information obtained from the numerical simulations is used to analyze the hydrodynamic phenomena related to the different propeller modeling methods. Comparing the results of the two methods for dealing with the propeller shows that the SM method’s accuracy is slightly higher than that of the MRF method for the computed force/moment on the hull/rudder, while the MRF method under-estimates the thrust of the propeller.