Validation of a roll decay test of an offshore installation vessel using openfoam

In this work, the offshore heavy lift DP2 jack-up vessel Innovation from the DEME group is studied using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) toolbox OpenFOAM. The two-phase Navier-Stokes fluid solver is coupled with a motion solver using a partitioned fluid-structure interaction algorithm. Firstly, two dimensional numerical simulations of a cross-section of the hull are performed using two different mesh motion techniques: a mesh morphing method and an overset mesh method. Subsequently, the addition of a bilge keel pair on the hull is studied numerically by performing a two dimensional roll decay simulation. Finally, a three dimensional simulation is performed for a roll decay test and validated by using experimental data measured in the MARIN seakeeping and manoeuvring basin. As a first result, the coupled CFD–motion solver proofs to be a promising toolbox for the study of fluid-structure interaction problems of realistic marine structures such as an offshore installation vessel