RANS-based full-scale power predictions for a general cargo vessel, and comparison with sea-trial results

Blind self-propulsion predictions for the 2016 LR Workshop on Ship Scale Hydrodynamic Computer Simulation have been carried out to simulate the full scale performance of a self-propelled ship in ballast. The single screw ship of 11542 tonnes had been scanned in drydock so the computational model used the actual as operated hull form. It will be shown that using a hybrid RANS-BEM method, the predicted ship speeds at self-propulsion are over-estimated by 0.17-0.28 knots compared to the trial data. The various aspects that influence the accuracy of the direct prediction of power and RPM using CFD are critically discussed.