Inland Waterway Ship Test Case For Benchmarking

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 tri-modal transport chain. A particular incentive for establishing the test case stems from the increasing importance of ship handling simulators coming into operation for navigability analyses. While seagoing ship test cases for benchmarking are in routine use in academia, no such information is available for inland waterway ships. These are characterized by peculiarities with respect to hull shape, propulsion and steering device. 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 aft ship and oblique inflow to propellers.