Insights into the scale effects on ship motions and wave loads considering hydroelasticity

To investigate the scale effects on ship seakeeping and wave loads, ship motions and wave loads considering hydroelasticity responses of a 310-m-long ship are calculated in four different scales, i.e., model scale 1:100, 1:50, 1:25 and full-scale 1:1 by using a partitioned CFD-FEM two-way coupled method. The simulation results of the 1:50 scaled model are also compared with tank experimental data of a segmented model with a same scale and configuration for validation. Then the hydrodynamic coefficients, incident waves, heave and pitch motions, vertical bending moment, vertical shearing force and whipping loads obtained by different scaled simulations are compared and the associated scale effects are systematically analyzed. This paper also investigates the influence of segment scheme and backbone configuration on ship modal characteristics, which sheds some light on the design of segmented models with backbone for hydroelasticity experiments.