Experimental and numerical investigations of whipping responses of a 20,000TEU ultra large container carrier

An accurate determination of global load effects in a ship is vital for the design of the vessel. A ship sailing in severe sea conditions will not only experience large amplitude motions but also suffer nonlinear wave loads including whipping and green water. The coupling effects of several kinds of nonlinear wave loads, especially whipping, may make the hull produce high-frequency and large-amplitude moments and forces, which threaten the safety of ships’ structure. Based on a newly designed 20,000 TEU ultra large container ship, the whipping responses of the ship hull subjected to regular waves are analyzed experimentally and numerically in this paper. Model tests of a flexible 20,000TEU containership have been carried out in the seakeeping tank at China Ship Scientific Center, to assess nonlinear wave load on the hull subjected to several regular and irregular sea states. Whipping responses of the hull are predicted using a 2D body nonlinear time domain code based on the potential theory. Some features of whipping loads are discussed by comparing the numerical and experimental results.