A Rankine Panel Method to Calculate Unsteady Ship Hydrodynamic Forces

Abstract

A panel method to calculate unsteady ship hydrodynamic forces is introduced. First, formulations were made for both steady and unsteady free-surface conditions under the assumption of small perturbation over the double body flow around a ship. A newly derived free-surface condition for unsteady motion makes a theoretical pair with Dawson's steady linearized free-surface condition. Next, a Rankine panel method was applied to solve the equations based on the present unsteady free-surface condition. For radiation condition of waves a numerical damping was introduced into the free-surface condition. Calculations were made of the unsteady hydrodynamic forces such as added mass, damping and wave exciting forces for a two-dimensional submerged cylinder and an ellipsoidal ship hull form. By comparing with other calculations and experiments it was shown that the present numerical method is useful for better understanding of the unsteady free-surface flow problems.