Validation of the CFD approach for modelling roughness effect on ship resistance

Recently, there have been active efforts to investigate the effect of hull roughness on ship resistance using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Although, several studies demonstrated that the roughness modelling in the CFD simulations can precisely predict the increase in frictional resistance due to the surface roughness, the experimental validations have been made only for flat plates which have zero pressure gradient. This means that the validations cannot necessarily guarantee the validity of this method for other ship resistance components besides the frictional resistance. Therefore, it is worth demonstrating the validity of the roughness modelling in CFD on the total resistance of a 3D hull. In this study, CFD models of a towed flat plate and a KRISO Container Ship (KCS) model were developed. In order to simulate the roughness effect in the turbulent boundary layer, a previously determined roughness function of a sand-grain surface was employed in the wall-function of the CFD model. Then the result of the CFD simulations was compared with the experimental data. The result showed a good agreement suggesting that the CFD approach can precisely predict the roughness effect on the total resistance of the 3D hull. Finally, the roughness effects on the individual ship resistance components were investigated.