Ship motions and unsteady pressures on ship hull in oblique waves estimated by potential-based solvers

Abstract The seakeeping performances in oblique wave conditions, such as ship motions and unsteady pressures on a ship hull, are getting more important, recently. These physical quantities are used for estimating loads induced by waves and evaluating the safety of a ship. Thanks to the evaluation of various incident wave angles, a rational ship design with sufficient safety and less construction cost can be realized. Therefore, the estimation by numerical schemes in those conditions is demanded for the ship design. However, schemes were usually validated through the comparison with experimental data in only heading wave conditions because few towing tanks can carry out the experiment for a ship advancing in oblique waves. The computed results in oblique waves should be validated well before the industrial usage of schemes. Although Computational Fluid Dynamics is useful to know the seakeeping performance in oblique waves thanks to the development of computer performance in these years, it takes much longer time than the schemes based on a potential theory. For this reason, three solvers based on the potential theory, the Salvesen-Tuck-Faltinsen method, the Green function method, and the Rankine panel method, are validated by comparing ship motions and unsteady pressure on the ship hull obtained from towing tank tests in oblique wave conditions.