Inland Waterway Ship Test Case

A typical inland waterway ship as encountered in European inland shipping was designed for the purpose of establishing a benchmark test case for numerical and experimental methods. The test case is established through provision of geometry and conditions, resistance and propulsion characteristics for a given shallow water condition. Inland waterway shipping plays a crucial role in the hinterland transport connection of large sea ports. Owing to the favorable environmental balance per transported cargo inland waterway shipping is considered burgeoning in the transport chain.

Particular incentives for establishing the test case stems from the increasing importance of ship handling simulators coming into operation for navigability analyses, and the advance of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).

Ship hydrodynamics in shallow water differ from deep water conditions in terms of the pressure field ambient to the ship underway, wave patterns, dynamic changes in floating position (squat) and underkeel-clearance (UKC), a complex flow regime in the UKC region involving distinct flow separation in the after body and oblique inflow to propellers.

3D CAD files and Reference paper coming soon