PHYSICAL MODELS FOR SIMULATING SHIP STABILITY AND HYDROSTATIC MOTIONS

In this paper, efficient physics models are presented for simulating ship hydrostatic motions caused by sea waves, cargoes and flooding water. Based on the stability theory of ship, a ship is regarded as a floating body whose stability is indicated by its gravity, buoyancy and meta centers. These stability centers are influenced by cargoes, sea waves, flooding water and the ship mass. Variations of these stability centers create torques and forces which cause the ship to heave, pitch and roll. Because of the irregularity of the ship shape, analytical solutions of these stability centers do not exist. In this work, a finite volume approach is employed to overcome this problem. At first, we split the ship body into cells by using a regular grid and distribute the ship mass, cargoes and flooding water into these cells. Then numerical methods and physics laws of floating body are utilized to compute the coordinates of these centers. Subsequently, torques and forces are calculated and utilized to create ship motions.