Numerical simulation of the seakeeping of a military trimaran hull by a novel overset mesh method in regular and irregular waves

The hydrodynamic performance of trimaran hulls has been previously investigated for optimum performance in calm water, but there is still a limited understanding of its motion response; therefore, a CFD-based numerical approach was developed and applied on a trimaran hull in the presence of regular and irregular waves. To validate the CFD method, a comparison was conducted using both experimental and 3D panel method data. In this study, two different turbulence models were surveyed, and the SST Menter k-Omega (k-ω) turbulence model was shown to be a more accurate model than the realizable k-Epsilon (k-ε) model. The different features of the proposed numerical model include the implementation of an overset mesh method, unique mesh plan refinement, and wave-damping region. The discrepancy between the experimental data and the results of other seakeeping calculation methods have always been problematic, especially for low-speed strip theory and 3D panel methods, but good consistency was observed between the proposed CFD model and experimental data. Unlike potential-based or conformal mapping seakeeping analysis methods, the effect of nonlinear waves, hull shape above the waterline, and other ship dynamic phenomena were considered in this CFD application. The proposed CFD method reduces the simulation time and computational efforts for ship motion calculations.