Powering and Motion Predictions of High Speed Sea Lift (HSSL) Ships

High Speed Sea Lift (HSSL) is an important area of interest for the US Navy. Computational tools are needed to predict the hydrodynamics of these configurations for their proper design and analysis in many areas including: resistance and powering, motions and habitability, loads in service and maneuverability. In particular, computational approaches requiring a minimum of empiricism are desired as there is a limited experimental database available for these ship concepts. To achieve this, efforts are underway to apply high-end unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) computations to these configurations in nearly all aspects relevant to their hydrodynamics analysis and design. The present effort concentrates on ship operations and the use of controllers for maneuvering and powering. Results are demonstrated for a 30 degree change of heading for a destroyer as well as a waterjet equipped HSSL concept accelerating from rest to the self propulsion point for a given speed. These predictions are computationally intensive and thus require high performance computing resources, but they are paving the way for a computational capability to aid in the design and analysis for a new generation of naval ships.