Bilge keel induced roll damping of an FPSO with sponsons

Abstract

The bilge keel induced roll damping of an FPSO with sponsons is investigated numerically and experimentally. The influence of the bilge keel size, on the roll damping is studied. Free decay tests of a three-dimensional ship model, for three different bilge keel sizes are used to determine roll damping coefficients. The dependency of the quadratic roll damping coefficient to the bilge keel height and the vertical location of the rotation center is studied using CFD. A Navier-Stokes solver based on the Finite Volume Method is adopted for solving the laminar flow of incompressible water around a section of the FPSO undergoing forced roll oscillations in two-dimensions. The free-surface condition is linearized by neglecting the nonlinear free-surface terms and the influence of viscous stresses in the free surface zone, while the body-boundary condition is exact. An averaged center of rotation is estimated by comparing the results of the numerical calculations and the free decay tests. The obtained two-dimensional damping coefficients are extrapolated to 3D by use of strip theory argumentations and compared with the experimental results. It is shown that this simplified approach can be used for evaluating the bilge keel induced roll damping with efficiency, considering unconventional ship shapes and free-surface proximity effects.