A numerical study on manoeuvrability of wind turbine installation vessel using OpenFOAM

ABSTRACTIn this study, a numerical prediction method on manoeuvrability of Wind Turbine Installation Vessel (WTIV) is presented. Planar Motion Mechanism (PMM) captive test for the bare hull of WTIV is carried out in the model basin and compared with the numerical results using RANS simulation based on Open-source Field Operation And Manipulation (OpenFOAM) calculation to validate the developed method. The manoeuvrability of WTIV with skeg and/or without skeg is investigated using the numerical approach along with the captive model test. In the numerical calculations, the dynamic stability index which indicates the course keeping ability is evaluated and compared for three different hull configurations i.e. bare hull and other two hulls with center skeg and twin skeg. This paper proves that the numerical approach using RANS simulation can be readily applied to estimate the manoeuvrability of WTIV at the initial design stage.