The numerical simulation of a towing cylinder based on immersed body boundary method

An immersed body boundary method is adopted to track the motions of a towing cylinder, and a homogenous multiphase Eulerian-Eulerian fluid approach is used to capture the free surface. The Reynolds average Navier-Stockes (RANS) solver is applied to all gird nodes to deal with different velocities of the nodes that are in the body boundary, near the boundary and out of the boundary and their effect on the fluid. The towing cylinder resistance at different submerged depths in the tank is presented. The simulation results are compared with the experimental data, and the method is verified and validated. Finally, the hydrodynamic characters of the cylinder are discussed further. The numerical and experimental results show that at high speeds, the deeper the cylinder submerges, the lower resistance it suffers. The resistance coefficient trough is obtained at Froude number in the range of 0.3 < Fr < 0.4. These phenomena can provide some suggestions on the small waterplane area twin hull (SWATH) design. © 2016, Shanghai Jiaotong University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.