Seakeeping Observations of SA Agulhas II Using Cadence Fidelity FINE/Marine

Introduction

Breakthrough advancements in marine CFD technology have replaced the age-old technique of towing tank testing. When designing a ship prototype, the sea motions are taken into consideration to determine the dimensions of the ship. The use of a towing tank test for this purpose is facing downhill because it is both expensive and time-consuming when testing multiple models before concluding on the best design. Today, the shift left approach is slowly being realized and employed in the marine industry to reduce the time to market, and hence, there is widespread use of CFD tools for the early prediction of faults in the ship's design cycle.

Below is an example showcasing?the use of Cadence Fidelity FINE/Marine for studying the seakeeping of SA Agulhas II:?

About SA Agulhas II

SA Agulhas II, a successor of SA. Agulhas, South Africa’s icebreaking supply vessel and research ship built by STX Finland in 2012 and owned by the South African Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA). Between February and March 2022, the wreck of Shackleton’s ship Endurance, which had sunk after being hit by an iceberg in 1915, was located by SA Agulhas II with a submersible vehicle. Currently, the sound and vibration group (SVRG) at Stellenbosch University is studying the seakeeping of the SA Agulhas II, and they are using the Cadence CFD tool for this task.

Benefits of Using Cadence Fidelity FINE/Marine

Cadence Fidelity FINE/Marine offers a seamless workflow from geometry preparation to post-processing. Using the Cadence CFD tool, the SVRG team produced a high-quality grid composed of unstructured, fully hexahedral mesh with anisotropic cell refinement while having high control over cell distribution. An accurate resolution of the boundary layer was possible using the inflation technique in HEXPRESS, maintaining the first cell size, essential for turbulence modeling, and ensuring a smooth transition to the Euler mesh.

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