CFD Simulations for modelling the roughness effects of fouling control coatings and biofouling on ship hydrodynamic performance

Dr Yigit Kemal Demirel, in the Department of Naval Architecture, Ocean & Marine Engineering at the University of Strathclyde is using ARCHIE-WeSt to investigate the effect of roughness (hull fouling and antifouling coatings) on ship performance, energy efficiency of ships, hull-propeller optimisation and energy saving devices (ESDs).

Increased hull roughness leads to increased ship resistance, causing higher fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. It would therefore be very beneficial to be able to accurately predict the effects of roughness on ship performance. This project proposes a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) based unsteady RANS model which enables the prediction of the roughness effect of marine coatings and biofouling on ship hydrodynamic characteristics, by employing the rouhness functions (ΔU+) representing the surface roughness obtained by experiments into the CFD models.

CFD simulations will be conducted to investigate the roughness effect of marine coatings and biofouling on:

Ship resistance performance
Marine propeller performance
Ship self-propulsion performance
Tidal turbine performance

For more information about this project, please contact Dr Yigit Kemal Demirel (yigit.demirel@strath.ac.uk), in the Department of Naval Architecture, Ocean & Marine Engineering at the University of Strathclyde.

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