Study on trim optimization for an oil tanker

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of trim on resistance performance for an oil tanker. First, the three-dimensional ship model, calculation basin and structural mesh were obtained. Commercial code of computational fluid dynamics was utilized to calculate the resistance of target ship under various trim conditions and drafts. Then, we compared the results calculated by numerical simulation with the towing tank test results to validate effectiveness of CFD method. Finally, influence of trim on ship resistance performance was analysed. It is concluded that this method can find the optimal trim value and provide practical advice for actual operation of the real ship. Consequently, it can be used to improve the efficiency of energy-saving and emission reduction, which provides a new direction for the development of green ships.