Numerical simulation of water flooding into a damaged vessel’s compartment by the volume of fluid method

When a vessel is damaged, seawater floods into the damaged compartments and subsequently influences the motion of the vessel. Furthermore, the vessel’s behaviour affects the floodwater motion. In this paper, a Navier–Stokes (NS) solver with a free surface capturing technique, i.e., the volume of fluid (VOF) method, was developed to numerically simulate water flooding into a damaged vessel. To verify the developed solver, a 2-D and a 3-D dam break problems were tested. The numerical results coincide well with the experimental results and with the published numerical results. Additionally, it was used to solve the problems of linear and non-linear liquid sloshing in a hexahedral tank. The numerical results are satisfactory in comparison with the experimental results and analytical solutions. Finally, the phenomenon of water flooding into a damaged compartment of a Ro-Ro ferry was simulated numerically. The computed results are in good agreement with the experimental data.