The state of the Art in Modeling Ship Stability in Waves

In 1996, the 22nd ITTC formed a Specialist Committee on Ship Stability. There were two main mandates given to this committee. Toe first was to examine the techniques for carrying out model experiments used to investigate the capsize of intact and damaged ships and provide guidelines for carrying out these experiments. Toe second was to assess the methods available for numerical simulations of the capsize of intact and damaged ships. This paper describes the findings of the committee so far, at the end of its second year of a three year term. The committee has prepared a summary of the state of art in the areas of numerical and physical modeling of intact and damaged ships. It has also circulated a questionnaire concerning the type of numerical methods used by ITTC member organizations for predicting the capsize of intact and damaged ships. Another major objective of the committee is to 'benchmark' codes against a standard hull form, for which there are well documented experiments. The hull form chosen was a container ship tested at Osaka University. This paper provides a brief summary of the findings of the committee in each of the four subject areas and makes recommendations for standard model test methods for intact and damage capsize predictions. It also discusses the preliminary findings from the questionnaire.