Global hydroelastic ship response comparison of numerical model and WILS model tests

It is nowadays well recognized that the hydroelastic ship response might be an important part of the overall ship structural response. We usually talk about two phenomena: namely springing and whipping, even if sometimes it is not trivial to distinguish between the two of them. Usually, springing is defined as a continuous resonant wave-induced hydroelastic ship response while whipping is defined as a transient hydroelastic response due to impulsive loading (slamming, green-water, underwater explosion ...). The difficulties related to the correct modeling of this type of structural response, either numerically or experimentally, are also well recognized and it is fair to say that the problem is not fully mastered today. There are currently several research projects worldwide aiming at solving this problem, most of them combining numerical modeling, small scale model tests and full scale measurements. One of these projects is the WILS project led by MOERI, in which model tests of an ultra large container ship flexible model were conducted in different operating conditions. The project aims at producing a useful database for the validation of numerical models and at the same time at providing the ship's design data. In this paper, comparisons of a hydroelastic numerical model with the model tests are presented. The numerical model is the combination of a full 3DFEM structural model, a 3D BIE based diffraction code and a 2D BIE slamming model, in time domain. Special accent is given to the oblique wave cases which are much more complex to model numerically. Copyright © 2011 by the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE).