Capability Evaluation of Morphing Mesh Approach for Hydrodynamic Analysis of One stepped planing craft

Implementation of bottom step in high speed planing hulls can lead to resistance reduction. Moreover, by using step, rough water performance of planing hulls will improve because the lift force is distributed over the hull bottom which can lead to porpoising stability in waves. In this paper, three dimensional fluid flows around a stepped hull is simulated. The governing equations is solved by finite volume method in conjunction with volume of fluid. Free surface flow and the complexity related to the flow separation from step have been thoroughly investigated. Moreover, in the presented simulation, hull has two degrees of freedom in sinkage and dynamic trim. Therefore, dynamic fluid-body interaction (DFBI) solver based on the mesh morphing approach is utilized. In process of numerical solution, computational domain is fixed and the mesh around the hull is moved. The obtained results for the resistance, dynamic trim and sinkage, Chine wetted length and keel wetted length of stepped hull, at different velocities, have been compared and validated against available experimental data. Also, dry length after step and stagnation line variations in various velocities is discussed. The obtained results indicate that the proposed numerical model can be used for optimal design of stepped hulls.