Steve Hollister
Junior Member
The details of CFD for vessels are so complicated that I don't think it is advisable to try and understand much unless you spend some time with the technical papers. Unfortunately, I don't know of any papers that approach the material on an introductory basis. The best one that I know of (that I mentioned before) is geared to naval architects - in fact it was just presented at the recent annual meeting of SNAME. It is located at this web site, along with the other papers presented at the conference. If you want the paper, you better grab it, because I don't know how long it will be available on-line.
"Modern Computational Methods for Ships in a Seaway", by Beck and Reed
http://www.sname.org/AM2001/2001_technical.htm
For those willing to dig in, this paper brings you right up to date on all of the CFD applications applied to vessel motions and resistance. The best parts are an historical review of the codes and theories, and a complete taxonomic breakdown of hydrodynamics problems for seakeeping. The main breakdown is between the invicid flow theories (potential flow) and the viscous flow theories (Stokes, RANS, LES, etc.). At the very least, if you read this paper, you will be up on all of the lingo!
I am willing to write output meshing routines from ProSurf to go to these CFD programs, but I don't know if there are any CFD programs (with free surface calculation) available at low or no cost.
"Modern Computational Methods for Ships in a Seaway", by Beck and Reed
http://www.sname.org/AM2001/2001_technical.htm
For those willing to dig in, this paper brings you right up to date on all of the CFD applications applied to vessel motions and resistance. The best parts are an historical review of the codes and theories, and a complete taxonomic breakdown of hydrodynamics problems for seakeeping. The main breakdown is between the invicid flow theories (potential flow) and the viscous flow theories (Stokes, RANS, LES, etc.). At the very least, if you read this paper, you will be up on all of the lingo!
I am willing to write output meshing routines from ProSurf to go to these CFD programs, but I don't know if there are any CFD programs (with free surface calculation) available at low or no cost.