Prediction of wind loads on a high-speed catamaran during manoeuvring at low speed

The influence of wind on a ship’s manoeuvring performance has always been an important issue, particularly in a harbour environment and during the ship’s docking or disembarking. These types of ships have relatively shallow draft and a smaller cross-sectional area below the waterline compared with their above waterline area. It is therefore important that the designer has appropriate tools for accurate station keeping prediction. This paper presents aerodynamic coefficient estimates for a 112m high-speed wave piercing catamaran (built by Incat Tasmania) using RANS-based Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Experimental Fluid Dynamics (EFD) from wind tunnel testing. It demonstrates that CFD and EFD can be used to complement each other in quantifying the magnitude and effects of wind loading on a high-speed wave piercing catamaran. The results from CFD simulations correspond well with the wind tunnel experiments.