Study of ship wave breaking patterns using 3D parallel SPH simulations

An analysis of the 3D wave pattern generated by a ship in stationary forward motion has been performed with a specific focus on the bow breaking wave. For this purpose a novel 3D parallel SPH solver has been designed and preliminarily tested using a specifically conceived geometry. Since the numerical effort to simulate 3D flows is considerable, an ad hoc hybrid MPI-OpenMP programming model has been developed to achieve simulations of hundred million of particles running on a computer cluster. The outcomes have been compared with experimental measurements and numerical results from RANS calculations.

► An analysis of the 3D wave pattern generated by a ship through a 3D SPH model is performed. ► An MPI/OpenMP SPH code is designed for problems with hundreds millions of particles. ► Validation of the solver in reproducing wave breaking is performed on test cases. ► Results are compared with experiments and numerical results from RANS calculations. ► The solver is able to capture the main features of ship breaking wave pattern.