PREDICTION OF WIND LOADS ON A HIGH-SPEED CATAMARAN DURING MANOEUVRING AT LOW SPEED

The influence of wind on a ship's manoeuvring performance has always been an important issue, particularly in a harbour environment and during the ship's docking or disembarking. Catamarans have a relatively shallow draught and small cross-sectional area below the waterline making station keeping a challenge due to wind loading. It is therefore important that the designer has appropriate tools for accurate station keeping prediction. This paper presents aerodynamic coefficient estimates for a 112 m high-speed wave piercing catamaran built by Incat Tasmania using RANS-based CFD and wind tunnel testing. It demonstrates that CFD and wind tunnel testing can be used to complement each other in quantifying the magnitude and effects of wind loading on a high-speed wave piercing catamaran. The results from the CFD simulations are validated by wind tunnel experiments. The uncertainty in the CFD calculated force coefficients is estimated to be less than 5.8%.