Resistance Calculations of Trimaran Hull Form Using Computational Fluid Dynamics

In this study a trimaran hull form has been investigated in order to predict the fluid flow of the ship using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Calculations for total resistance are carried out for Froude numbers in the range of 0.14 to 0.75. Commercial CFD software FLUENT is used to investigate the fluid flow of trimaran. Turbulence model of k-ε and SST k-ω with VOF scheme are evaluated for the calculations of free surface of the ship. Three different mesh sizes are used to study the mesh effects and determine the appropriate one. The results obtained from CFD calculations for total resistance are compared with the experimental results for accuracy of the solution parameters. The comparison shows a good agreement between experimental and CFD results.