Numerical simulation and experimental study on the turning motion of azimuth thruster-driven platform supply vessel

This study used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to investigate the maneuvering characteristics of a 77.66 m azimuth thruster driven platform supply vessel (PSV). Numerical simulations of planar motion mechanism (PMM) experiments and open water experiments were conducted in the STAR-CCM+ software to obtain hydrodynamic coefficients. A new mathematical model was proposed for predicting the maneuverability of PSV and compared with experimental data for verification. The findings indicate that the numerical errors are all less than 10 %, which is due to the presence of wind and waves at a speed of 2 m/s in the experimental study, and their effects were not considered in the numerical simulation. Therefore, the errors are acceptable. The numerical method of this study can support the use of CFD derived fluid dynamics coefficients as an effective alternative to traditional model testing in ship design driven by azimuthal thrusters.