Influences of Gap Flow on Air Resistance Acting on a Large Container Ship

In terms of speed lost and fuel consumed, wind loads are considered one of the main factors for large ship design, especially for container ships. Alongside water resistance, air resistance in strong wind conditions has a significant impact on the fuel efficiency and performance of container ships with large box-type bodies. This paper reports the effects of wind loads acting on a 20,000 TEU container ship carrying large numbers of deck containers using a commercial CFD software program (ANSYS Fluent V14.5 with RANS equation). A 1/255.3 scale model was used in this study to reveal the air resistance on the container ship configuration. The aerodynamic formations of the complex vortices, pressure, velocity contours, and streamlines, as well as the air forces acting on the container ship, are presented and discussed. The pressure distributions show that the gap air flows increase the stagnation pressure at the face side and decrease the pressure on the backside of each container gap through separate eddies. The difference in pressures created in the gaps contribute to the air resistance acting on the ship. It is confirmed that the use of side covers of deck containers to close the gap flows between container blocks can significantly reduce the air resistance for wind directions in the range of 30 to 60 degrees