Verification of damage ship survivability with computational fluid dynamics

In the new era of direct stability assessment (DSA) for ship survivability in intact and damaged
conditions, direct and accurate evaluation of the safety level achieved by the design plays a vital role. Two are the most popular methods for DSA namely, time domain numerical simulation (TDNS) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Both can be used for the evaluation of the safety level of a ship post casualties, following collision or a grounding incidents. It is common practice for the TDNS methods to have as a core a hydraulic model for capturing the propagation of the floodwater and its dynamics in order to reduce the computational cost. However, more recently, CFD methods have matured enough to provide a credible alternative, particularly concerning the investigation of complex fluid dynamics problems. The catch, however, is higher computation costs and this is where ingenuity helps. This paper proposes and demonstrates the feasibility of using high fidelity computational fluid dynamics tools for direct damage stability assessment of ships.