Ship propulsion numerical simulator: validation of the manoeuvrability module

Abstract: Ship dynamics and propulsion numerical simulator, developed at the University of Genova and already tested with reference to different ship types, is applied to a small naval unit, for which various experimental tests results are known both in model and full scale. In particular, the paper is focused on the validation of the manoeuvrability module, which is an essential part of the overall ship propulsion simulator and that was conceived to be helpful for the designer also in the preliminary design phase. The base theory of the manoeuvring simulator module is introduced and the numerical implementation, in a modern dedicated dynamic system simulation environment, presented as well. The advantages of the modular architecture of the simulator is obvious and allow an extremely easy and gradual growth in complexity of the model, for instance including accurate (thermodynamic) engine and shaft line dynamic simulations. The full scale data acquisition of some manoeuvres was done by a dedicated measuring equipment, based on a modern system of multiple high accuracy phase GPS receivers set up for the purpose. Validation of the results has been made mainly on turning circle and zig-zag manoeuvres and compared also with simple statistical prevision formulas. The agreement of the simulated results is in general not worse than the correlation of different experimental results.