The Investigation of Launching Parameters on the Motion Pattern of Freefall Lifeboat Using FSI Analysis

The freefall lifeboats have been designed to be fast and reliable evacuation system. Once the occupants have gone onboard, the lifeboat is simply sliding from a skid before the freefall. Some second after the water impact, the propulsion system can be started and the lifeboat can sail away from parent vessel. During the launching process, trajectories of freefall lifeboats can be divided into such categories, depending on the headway and advance speed after water entry and surfacing of the lifeboats. The aim of the paper is investigating the influence of the launching parameters such as, sliding distance, angle of skid and the falling height on the motion pattern of the freefall lifeboats by using Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) analysis. The fluid structure interaction analysis is simulated using penalty coupling algorithm. The fluid is treated on a fixed mesh using a Single Material Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian formulation and the lifeboat structure on a rigid shell element mesh using a Lagrangian formulation. The results of the numerical simulations provide the magnitude of launching parameters for safely launching of the freefall lifeboat.