Numerical Simulation And Analyzation Of Ship Maneuvers With Azimuth Thrusters

Azimuth thruster is a new maneuvering and thrusting equipment,which has more powerful maneuvering ability compared with the traditional combination of rudder and propeller.It can deal with complex situation,for example,turning in situ,moving transversely,crash-astern maneuvering,and maneuvering at slow speed.However,the maneuvering of azimuth thruster has big difference with rudder due to their difference at operating principle.The main object of this thesis is the maneuvering performance of ship with azimuth thrusters,and to compare with traditional combination of rudder and propeller,as a reference for practical maneuvering and the design and layout of azimuth thruster in ship design.Overset grid method,RANS method,6DOF motions and body force propeller model were used in this thesis to simulate the maneuvering process of ship with azimuth thruster under selfpropulsion,which realized the integration of maneuvering test module in Oship software.Firstly,turning and zigzag maneuvers of classical DTMB 5415 ship were simulated to compare with the experimental results to verify the availability of these method.Secondly,a passenger ship with two azimuth thruster was taken as an example to simulate turning and zigzag maneuvers.Simultaneously,traditional rudder and propeller were simulated for comparison.And the influence of initial ship speed on maneuvering performance was analyzed in this thesis.Thirdly,a ferry was taken as an example to simulate zigzag maneuvers of catercorner azimuth thrusters,and the influence of the distance between two azimuth thrusters on maneuvering performance was analyzed in this thesis.This thesis’ s research shows that azimuth thruster has great maneuver performance at low ship speed,and its maneuvering is every sensitive to the initial ship speed.Practically,ship speed should be reduced firstly and then maneuvers with big rudder angle so that can achieve a great performance.