Numerical assessment of roll motion characteristics and damping coefficient of a ship

Accurate calculation of the roll damping moment at resonance condition is essential for roll motion prediction. Because at the resonance condition, the moment of inertia counteracts restoring moment and only the damping moment resists increase in the roll angle. There are various methods to calculate the roll damping moment which are based on potential flow theory. These methods have limitations to taking into account the viscous effects in estimating the roll motion, while, CFD as a numerical method is capable of considering the viscous effects. In this study, a CFD method based on a harmonic excited roll motion (HERM) technique is used to compute the roll motion and the roll damping moment of a containership’s model in different conditions. The influence of excitation frequency, forward speed and degrees of freedom at beam-sea and oblique-sea realizations are considered in estimating the roll damping coefficients. The results are validated against model tests, where a good agreement is found.