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Predicting Roll Added Mass and Damping of a

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Conference Paper January 2011
DOI: 10.1115/OMAE2011-49085

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Proceedings of ASME 30th International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering
OMAE2011
June 19-24, 2011, Rotterdam, Netherlands

OMAE2011-49085
PREDICTING ROLL ADDED MASS AND DAMPING OF A SHIP HULL SECTION
USING CFD

Frederick Jaouen
MARIN
Offshore Department
P.O. Box 28, 6700 AA Wageningen
The Netherlands
Email: f.jaouen@marin.nl

Arjen Koop
MARIN
Offshore Department
P.O. Box 28, 6700 AA Wageningen
The Netherlands
Email: a.koop@marin.nl

INTRODUCTION
Roll motion is the most difficult response of a ship to calculate, because it contains the largest viscous effects. Studying the
damping of this roll motion is necessary for a better understanding of ship motions in waves and ship motions during manoeuvring operations. The roll damping of ships is caused by various
fluid flow phenomena.
As pointed out by Ikeda et al. [6], see also Himeno [5], the
total roll damping coefficient for a ship hull can be divided into a
number of components, i.e. skin-friction stress on the hull, eddy
damping due to pressure variations on the hull, wave damping
due to free surface waves and bilge keel damping. The change
in pressure on the hull due to the bilges and bilge keels is highly
dominated by viscous effects, especially due to generated eddies
separating from the sharp edges of the bilges or bilge keels.
Computational methods based on potential flow theory are
not capable of predicting these viscous effects. Computational
Fluid Dynamics (CFD) can play an important role in the assessment of damping coefficients, viscous effects and in the understanding of complex flow behavior around the bilges and bilge
keels of the hull. CFD may offer a cost-effective method complementary to model tests to obtain damping coefficients with
reasonable accuracy and to provide detailed flow visualizations.
Therefore, a better understanding of the possibilities and limitations of CFD for determining roll damping and the sensitivity
of CFD results for various parameters by hands-on experience is
required.
To understand the complex flow behaviour in the vicinity of
bilges and bilge keels, two-dimensional calculations using CFD
are carried out on a hull section under imposed roll motion at a
certain period and amplitude. That allows to capture roll damping estimates for the type of bilges or bilge keels considered.
Furthermore, detailed visualizations of the fluid flow around
the bilge keels and the hull shape can be assessed to obtain insight in the complex flow due to bilges. An example of a PIV
study on the flow around bilge keels is given by Di Felice et

ABSTRACT
In this paper, the flow around a forced rolling body is analyzed with MARIN in-house CFD code ReFRESCO. The objective is to assess if the code can correctly predict the added
mass and damping coefficients of a rolling vessel. After a description of code and numerical methods, the results for the flow
computed around a 2D rolling hull section are presented. Sharp
and rounded bilges are investigated for three roll amplitudes and
three roll periods. The influence of grid and time discretisation
and iterative errors are analyzed. The CFD results with ReFRESCO are compared to experiments and to results obtained
with the commercial CFD package CFX. The results shown here
indicate that ReFRESCO is capable of accurately predicting the
added mass and damping coefficients. However, it is also shown
that fine grids and time-steps are required to obtain a grid and
time-step converged solution.

DEFINITIONS
B
D
g
T

Re
a
b
a
b

Breadth of the hull

Draft of the hull
Gravitational acceleration
Forced roll period
Kinematic viscosity of water
Density of water
Forced roll amplitude
Roll cyclic frequency = 2/T p
Dimensionless frequency = (B/2g)
Reynolds number is UL/ = B2 /T
Added mass coefficient
Damping coefficient
Dimensionless added mass coefficient
Dimensionless damping coefficient

Guilherme Vaz
MARIN
RD Department
P.O. Box 28, 6700 AA Wageningen
The Netherlands
Email: g.vaz@marin.nl

[m]
[m]
[m/s2]
[s]
[m2/s]
[-]
[rad]
[rad/s]
[-]
[-]
[-]
[-]
[-]
[-]

c 2011 by ASME
Copyright

al. [2]. The influence of 3D effects, such as forward speed and

3D hull shape, are recognized, but will not be considered within
this paper. The effect of a free surface will also be included in
the future.
In this paper numerical solutions from ReFRESCO are compared with experimental data from Ikeda [6]. Other examples of
numerical studies on roll motion are Paap [11], Yu [18], Kacham
[8] and Broglia [1]. Other experimental results are presented by
Vugts [17] and Na et al. [10].

OBJECTIVE AND APPROACH

The key objective of this study is to be able to calculate
damping coefficients for various hull shapes in a cost-effective
and efficient manner with reasonable accuracy using MARIN
CFD code ReFRESCO. The viscous effects of roll damping from
friction and vortices are determined only, the damping effects due
to waves are not considered. The model geometry is mirrored in
the water-plane and completely submerged in the water, i.e. the
so-called double body approach. Two-dimensional calculations
on a hull section with bilges are carried out. On the model section a harmonic roll motion is imposed by moving the complete
body and computational mesh at a prescribed period T and amplitude 0 . Rectangular hull sections with sharp and rounded corners are investigated. For both cases, three forced roll amplitudes
0 = 0.1, 0 = 0.175, 0 = 0.3rad ( = 5.73 , 10.03 and 17.19
respectively) and three forced roll periods T = 0.75s, T = 1.0s,
T = 1.5s ( = 1.0, 0.75, 0.5,respectively) are investigated, so
a total of 9 combinations amplitude-periods possible. For both
geometries, grid and time-step sensitivity studies are performed.
For the sharp corner geometry, the influence of structured or unstructured grids generated by ICEM-CFD or Hexpress is investigated, and a comparison of ReFRESCO and commercial code
CFX results is made.

0 [rad]

b (Ikeda)

b wave (DIFFRAC)

b viscous

0.085

1.04E-2

7.39E-4

9.66E-3

0.102

1.28E-2

7.39E-4

1.21E-2

0.117

1.37E-2

7.39E-4

1.30E-2

0.132

1.49E-2

7.39E-4

1.42E-2

0.143

1.84E-2

7.39E-4

1.77E-2

0.153

2.16E-2

7.39E-4

2.09E-2

0.165

1.93E-2

7.39E-4

1.86E-2

0.177

2.39E-2

7.39E-4

2.32E-2

0.204

2.75E-2

7.39E-4

2.68E-2

0.232

3.03E-2

7.39E-4

2.96E-2

Table 1. Experimental data of Ikeda corrected for free surface effect.

Sharp bilges are considered for a roll period T = 1.5s.

the body. The pressure distribution on the body is calculated

from the velocity potential and the added mass and damping coefficients are then determined from the pressure distribution. It
should be noted that linear diffraction analysis assumes infinitely
small motions, and an ideal (non-viscous) fluid, meaning that
viscous roll damping values are not computed and have to be
added separately. The added mass and damping coefficients are
determined for the hull at a scale 100 times larger with sharp and
round bilges using different lengths of the section (in the third dimension: 100, 200, 400 and 800m) and for different oscillation
periods. This is done to investigate the 3D effects and obtain the
damping of the equivalent 2D section.
Table 1 summarizes the original and corrected experimental
results used. The first column of the table shows the damping coefficients measured by Ikeda [6]; the second column of the table
shows the wave damping components determined by DIFFRAC;
the third column of the table is the viscous damping coefficient
that will be compared to the ReFRESCO numerical results.

EXPERIMENTAL DATA
For the study herein presented, the CFD results are compared to the experimental data of Ikeda [6]. Ikeda [6] measured
the damping coefficients for a rectangular hull of dimensions
LxBxD=0.8x0.28x0.112m. The tests were carried out with a
free-surface, which means that the results include a wave damping component. For our study, we used the Ikeda hull with sharp
bilges for a period T = 1.5s.
As described by Ikeda, the damping can be decomposed (assuming linearity) in the sum of the friction damping bF , eddy
damping bE and wave damping bW , i.e. b = bE + bW + bF .
Because we carry out the CFD computations with a fully submerged hull, the wave damping is not computed and needs to be
subtracted from the experimental data of Ikeda before comparison. Therefore, before that the CFD computations were carried
out, the added mass and wave damping coefficients of the two
hull shapes were determined by diffraction analysis, using the
MARIN in-house code DIFFRAC [12]. DIFFRAC solves the
linearized velocity potential problem using a three-dimensional
source distribution technique. The part of the hull section below the mean free surface is approximated by a number of panel
elements. The distribution of source singularities on these panels forms the velocity potential describing the fluid flow around

THEORETICAL FORMULATION
The harmonic roll motion is prescribed by moving the hulls
by a roll angle (t) defined as follows
(t) = 0 sin t,

(1)

with 0 the amplitude of the roll motion and the angular

frequency. The sign convention can be seen on Figure 1. The
simulation is started by multiplying the roll angle with a start-up
function G(t) for the first TF roll periods. This is found necessary
in order to avoid strong transient flows at the earlier time-steps
of the calculation. The start-up function G(t) is defined by


(
t
1
1
sin

+ 12 , for t < TF T,
2TF
2
(2)
G(t) = 2
1
, for t TF T.
The roll angle (t) is now defined by
(t) = G(t)0 sin t.

(3)

The prescribed roll angle (t) leads to a hydrodynamic reaction roll moment ME (t). The equation of motion for uncoupled

c 2011 by ASME
Copyright

Developing the previous equation, it is found that the added

mass and damping coefficients can be expressed as follows:

-10deg

a =
X

Figure 1.

where is the hull displacement defined as = DB, with D the

draft and B the breadth as presented in Figure 2.
The hydrodynamic moment M on the object is defined by
E

M=

(4)

where a is the added mass for roll motion, B( , 0 ) the damping moment, C( ) the restoring moment, which is equal to zero
in the absence of a free surface, and ME (t) the excitation/reaction
moment. Various forms for the damping moment exist. Here, we
consider a so-called equivalent linear form, i.e. B( , 0 ) = b 0 ,
with b the roll damping coefficient. Finally, the equation of
motion becomes:

CFD CODE REFRESCO

ReFRESCO (old name FreSCo) is a MARIN in-house
viscous-flow CFD code [14]. It solves the multi-phase unsteady
incompressible RANS (Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes) equations, complemented with turbulence models and volumefraction transport equations for different phases. The equations
are discretized using a finite-volume approach with cell-centered
collocated variables. The implementation is face-based, which
permits grids with elements consisting of an arbitrary number of
faces (hexahedrals, tetrahedrals, prisms, pyramids, etc.), and if
needed h-refinement (hanging-nodes). The code is parallelized
using MPI and sub-domain decomposition, and runs on Linux
workstations, clusters and super-computers.
The code is targeted, optimized and validated, exclusively
for hydrodynamic applications. It has already been applied, verified and validated for several offshore typical flows, in particular
for current and maneuvering coefficients of semi-submersibles,
submarines and ships and wind loads. [16, 13, 4, 9, 15].
For the problem here treated the RANS equations are solved
using a so-called Absolute-Formulation or ABF. This means
that the velocity vector V is defined in the absolute or inertial
earth-fixed reference frame, with the equations being solved in
the body-fixed reference frame which is moving with velocity
Vd = r + Vs . No free-surface effects are considered but flow
is considered to be turbulent. The URANS equations read then:

(5)

Although the prescribed roll motion (t) is a pure sine (after

the start-up phase), the exciting roll moment ME (t) is not due
to effects from viscosity and eddy making. We assume that the
reaction roll moment ME (t) can be approximated by a pure sine
function M (t), which can be expressed as:
M (t) = M0 sin(t + ),

(6)

where M0 is the amplitude of the roll moment and indicates

the phase angle between the prescribed roll angle and the roll
moment. At the beginning of this study, four different sinusoid fitting methods were investigated: the so-called Morrison
method, the harmonic analysis, the least-square method, and the
weighted least-square method (see [7]). It was concluded that
the harmonic analysis and the least square methods lead to similar results, while the two other methods can significantly deviate.
For the study here presented, the harmonic analysis is chosen to
fit a sinusoid M on the computed moment time-trace ME . The
harmonic analysis is based on the calculation of Fourier coefficients, and it should be therefore noted that a post-processing
step is involved between the computed moment, and the hydrodynamic coefficients. Thus, the linear equation of motion for
uncoupled roll motion is given as
a 00 + b 0 = M (t).

(10)

where r is the lever arm vector, i.e. the vector from the axis of
rotation to the point of force application. S is the surface of the
object, p the pressure and the viscous stress on that surface. n
is the unit normal vector pointing into the object, i.e. out of the
computational domain and t is the tangential unit vector. Since
a double body geometry is considered and the experiments of
Ikeda et al. [6] were performed on a single body geometry, the
integral in Equation (10) is only taken over the bottom half of the
configuration shown in Figure 3.

forced roll motion can be described by the second-order differential equation:

a 00 + b 0 = ME (t).

(pr n + r t) dS,

Description of the setup and sign conventions.

a 00 + B( , 0 ) +C( ) = ME (t),

(8)

For comparison the hydrodynamic coefficients are normalized by

s
a
b
B

a =
, b =
,
(9)
B2
B2 2g

M0 sin()
M0 cos()
, b =
.
2
0
0

(V Vd ) = 0,

(11)




(Vi )
+ [ (V Vd )Vi ] = ( + t ) V + VT ij ,
t
2
(p + k)ii ,
3
( V) ,
(12)

(7)

c 2011 by ASME
Copyright

where t , k are determined by a turbulence model. In the specific case here dealt with, there is no translation velocity Vs = 0
and therefore Vd = r, with = (0, 0, 0 ) and 0 derived
from Equation 3. The advantages of using a ABF formulation
are: 1) moving-grid algorithms are not needed, which decreases
the CPU time needs; 2) the variables are defined in the earthfixed reference frame and therefore there is no need for additional
post-processing; 3) the usual Coriolis and centrifugal forces are
no longer added explicitly to the right-hand-side of the equations,
which eases the iterative convergence of the calculations. For this
ABF method, boundary conditions must be defined in the earthfixed reference frame. The same method is used at MARIN for
calculations of open-water propeller characteristics with moderate CPU time costs and good iterative convergence properties.

investigated. Tables 2 and 3 present the number of elements per

grid for the sharp and rounded bilges respectively.

Table 2.

Grids for sharp cornered 2D hull section.

Package

Grid

Grid name

Total number
elements

ICEM-CFD

Hexpress

NUMERICAL SETUP
Geometry and computational mesh
Two rectangular hull sections are investigated: one with
sharp 90 degree corners and one with rounded corners as presented in Figure 2. The thickness of the computational domain
in the third dimension is equal to 0.1m.

Table 3.

Coarse

42k

CoarseMedium

97k

Medium

173k

MediumFine

392k

Fine

698k

Coarse

61k

Medium

199k

Fine

713k

Grids for rounded cornered 2D hull section.

Package

Grid

Grid name

Total number
elements

ICEM-CFD

Coarse

42k

Medium

173k

Fine

698k

(a) Sharp bilges

Numerical settings
A forced roll motion is prescribed to the hull section, and
the start-up function is applied for TF = 4 periods. Unsteady
computations are carried out solving the momentum, continuity
and turbulence equations. As initial conditions, the domain is
full of water and the pressure and velocity components are set to
zero in all cells.
For ReFRESCO, a three-time-level discretization scheme
with a fixed time-step is used for all equations. All simulations
are twenty roll periods long. Within each time-step a RMS residual drop of 106 nominal value is attempted by carrying out several outer-loops with a maximum of 30, also here tested. For
convection terms in the momentum equation a QUICK scheme
is used, while in the turbulence equation an UPWIND scheme
is used. All gradients are calculated using Gauss theorem. All
calculations are performed with the k SST turbulence model
with the eddy viscosity ratio / equal to 1 and all other turbulent quantities automatically defined in ReFRESCO.
For the calculations with CFX the high resolution convection scheme is utilized together with the second-order backwards
time discretization scheme and the SST turbulence model using
a first order UPWIND discretization scheme. The eddy viscosity / is set equal to 1 and the turbulence intensity is chosen
equal to I=1%.

(b) Rounded bilges

Figure 2. Overview of the hull shape with sharp and rounded corners; B = 0.28m, D = 0.112m, R = 0.1m.

The computational domain is shown on Figure 3. It is closed

by a circular boundary located at a radius 3m from the center of
rotation, which is far enough such that the velocity and pressure
field generated by the oscillating body is unaffected by the outer
boundary. The grid is clustered towards the corner of the 2D
hull section with the size of the first element being 10% of the
size of an element when an uniform grid spacing would have
been applied. The grid is three-dimensional with one element
in the z-direction since a two-dimensional situation is computed.
As illustrated in Figure 3, a no-slip b.c. is applied on the hull,
symmetry b.c. are applied on the planes in z-direction, while a
pressure b.c. is used at the circular border of the domain.
For the hull with sharp edges five structured grids generated
by ICEM-CFD, and three unstructured hexahedral grids generated by Hexpress are investigated. For the hull with rounded
bilge keels, three structured grids generated by ICEM-CFD are

c 2011 by ASME
Copyright

NUMERICAL STUDIES: SHARP BILGES

Grid and time-step sensitivity
Grid and time-steps sensitivities studies have been carried
out for the two extremes combinations of roll amplitude and
period, i.e. T = 1.5s with 0 = 0.1rad and T = 0.75s with
0 = 0.3rad. The results show similar trends for these two cases.
Therefore, the results are reported for the case T = 1.5s with
0 = 0.1rad only. The objective is to determine the influence of
grid resolution and time-step size on the added mass and damping coefficients.
Figure 4 shows the pressure and vorticity distribution of the
flow after 20 periods on the medium ICEM grid and with a timestep equal to t = T /800. On this figure the generation of vortices at the sharp edges can be clearly identified and is at the origin of the eddy damping. Figure 5 shows the convergence level
after 10 roll periods. It can be seen that the convergence could
be improved by increasing the number of outer-loops.
The hydrodynamic moment applied on the bottom hull is
monitored and is shown on Figure 6 for different grids and timesteps. From Figure 6 we conclude that the moment converges
for finer grids and for smaller time-steps. The influence of grid
resolution and time-step size on the calculated moment is found
to be relatively small. The maximum amplitude increases when
the time-step is refined, but decreases slightly when the grid is
refined. Furthermore, the peak and shape of the curve of the
moment slightly changes when refining the grid.

(a) Geometry and boundary description.

From the calculated moment the added mass and damping

coefficient are calculated as illustrated in Figure 7. Although the
influence on the calculated moment was small a larger change is
found in the added mass and damping coefficients when refining
the grid and time-step. The added mass coefficient increases for
smaller time-steps and finer grids. The damping coefficient does
not show a significant change for smaller time-steps, but a clear
decrease can be observed for finer grids. These coefficients do
converge when the grid and time-step are refined. Again, we
emphasize that these results include the inherent numerical errors
from the harmonic-analysis (FFT) used.

(b) ICEM mesh. Sharp bilges.

Outer-loop sensitivity
In the grid and time-step sensitivity studies, 30 outer-loops
per time-step were used, which was believed to be a good compromise between accuracy and CPU time. The effect of the outerloops on the results is investigated in this section. For T = 1.5s
with 0 = 0.1rad, CFD computations are performed using ReFRESCO on the medium ICEM grid with a time-step T /800 with
30, 50, 100 and 200 outer-loops respectively. It is found that the
influence of the number of outer loops on the calculated moment
is still visible. After analysis of the moment time trace, it was
found that the added mass and damping coefficients change by
10% and 8% when using 30 iterations compared with 200 iterations. It should be noted that the level of convergence only improves from 1104 to 4105 (pressure residuals). The influence
of the outer-loops on the added mass and damping coefficients is
plotted on Figure 8. In a next phase of this work, 100 outer-loop
per time-steps should be used.

(c) Hexpress mesh. Sharp bilges.

Figure 3. Description of the geometry, boundary condition, and computational mesh.

c 2011 by ASME
Copyright

(a) Medium grid. Different time-steps.

(a) Pressure in Pa.

(b) t = T /800. Different grids.

Figure 6.
0.1rad .

Solution for different grids and time-steps.

T = 1.5s and 0 =

(b) Z vorticity in 1/s.

Figure 4. Flow solution of sharp cornered rectangle for 0 = 0.1rad
and T = 1.5s on medium ICEM grid and t = T /800. Simulation time
is t = 20s.

(a) Results a for T = 1.5s with 0 = 0.1rad.

(b) Results b for T = 1.5s with 0 = 0.1rad.

Figure 5.

Figure 7. Sharp cornered rectangle, B = 0.28m,

sults a and b for different grid and time-steps.

Residual convergence for ReFRESCO computation on

medium ICEM grid with sharp bilges with a time-step t

= T /800s.

D = 0.112m. Re-

c 2011 by ASME
Copyright

ences are found to be smaller.

In Figure 10, the added mass and damping coefficients are
presented using CFX and ReFRESCO on the medium grid with
different time-steps. Again, it can be observed that the results
obtained with CFX are not very sensitive to the time-step. The
difference between CFX and ReFRESCO in added mass and
damping coefficient are approximately 10% for T = 1.5s with
0 = 0.1rad and 4-8% for T = 0.75s with 0 = 0.3rad.
(a) Results a for T = 1.5s with 0 = 0.1rad

From these comparisons we conclude that using CFX or ReFRESCO gives results that lie within 10% from each other depending on grid resolution and time-step size used. Nevertheless,
we emphasize that a fair comparison between different codes using different numerical schemes and orders of accuracy should be
only done for the grid and time-step refined solution, and taking
into account numerical uncertainties of the results. This should
be done in a next phase of this project using a V&V verification
and validation procedure presented in [3].

(b) Results b for T = 1.5s with 0 = 0.1rad

Figure 8. Sharp cornered rectangle, B = 0.28m, D = 0.112m. Results for a and b using different number of outer-loop iterations on
the medium with time-step t = T /800.

Grid type sensitivity

In order to investigate the influence of the grid types on the
results, ReFRESCO computations were performed on the hull
with sharp edges using two different types of mesh, i.e. structured grids generated by ICEM-CFD, and unstructured hexahedral grids generated by Hexpress. The grid and time-step studies
are also performed on Hexpress grids, using the same numerical settings as used for the computations on ICEM grids. This
sensitivity study was performed for both cases T = 1.5s with
0 = 0.1rad and T = 0.75s with 0 = 0.3rad.
Using the Hexpress grid results in approximately 3% and
8% higher values for the added mass and damping coefficients
for T = 1.5s with 0 = 0.1rad. For T = 0.75s with 0 = 0.3rad
the differences are 18% and 6%, respectively. The residual level
for Hexpress grids is higher than for ICEM grids indicating that
care should be used when performing calculations on Hexpress
grids. We recommend to increase the number of outer-loop iterations when using Hexpress grids to at least 100 to improve the
convergence level.

(a) T = 1.5s with 0 = 0.1rad.

Solver comparison
CFD computations have been carried out for the sharp corner using the commercial CFD package CFX, and results compared to the ReFRESCO results. For CFX the three structured grids Coarse, Medium and Fine are used with time-steps
t = T /100, T /200 and T /400. The two cases T = 1.5s with
0 = 0.1rad and T = 0.75s with 0 = 0.3rad are investigated.
It is found out that the calculated moment by CFX is not
significantly affected by the time-step. However, the grid resolution clearly changes both phase and amplitude of the calculated
moment. Figure 9 compares the moment time-traces computed
by CFX and ReFRESCO and shows significant differences in
amplitude and in phase, especially for the case T = 1.5s with
0 = 0.1rad. For the case T = 0.75s with 0 = 0.3rad the differ-

(b) T = 0.75s with 0 = 0.3rad.

B = 0.28m, D =
0.112m. Presented are the moment solutions obtained with CFX and
ReFRESCO using the medium grid and t = T /400.
Figure 9.

Solution for sharp cornered rectangle,

c 2011 by ASME
Copyright

(a) Results a for T = 1.5s with 0 = 0.1rad

(a) Pressure in Pa.

(b) Results b for T = 1.5s with 0 = 0.1rad
Figure 10. Sharp cornered rectangle, B = 0.28m, D = 0.112m. Results a and b using CFX and ReFRESCO on the medium grid with
different time-steps.

NUMERICAL STUDIES: ROUNDED BILGES

For the 2D section with rounded edges, the grid and timestep sensitivities were investigated for T = 1.5s with 0 = 0.1rad
and T = 0.75s with 0 = 0.3rad using ReFRESCO on ICEMCFD grids. Time-steps between t = T /100 and t = T /1600
are investigated. Here again, the trends obtained for the two cases
are very similar and only the case with T = 1.5s and 0 = 0.1rad
is presented. Figure 11 shows the pressure and vorticity distribution of the flow at t = 20s and Figure 12 the convergence level
after 10 roll periods.
In Figure 13 the solution for the moment is presented for
different grids and time-steps. From this Figure we conclude
that the moment converges for finer grids and for smaller timesteps. The influence of time-step size on the calculated moment
is found to be relatively small, but the influence of the grid refinement is significant. The moment amplitude increases when
the time-step is refined, and when the grid is refined. The peak
of the moment is shifted to the left for finer grids.
The added mass and damping coefficients are presented in
Figure 14. It can be observed that the added mass is grid converged and time-step converged. The damping coefficient does
not show a significant change for smaller time-steps, but a clear
decrease can be observed for finer grids. These coefficients do
converge when the grid and time-step are refined, and we therefore recommend to use finer grids to improve the accuracy of the
results.
Figure 15 compares the pressure contour in the vicinity of
the bilges for the sharp and rounded bilges. We can see that
much lower pressures are computed for the sharp bilges.

(b) Z vorticity in 1/s.

Figure 11. Flow solution of rounded cornered rectangle for A = 0.1rad
and T = 1.5s on medium grid and t = T /800. Simulation time is
t = 20s.

VALIDATION
After the sensitivity studies carried out on the grid refinement, time-step, outer-loops, grid generator and solver, the amplitude and periods of the forced roll motion were varied and the

Figure 12. Residual convergence for ReFRESCO computation on

medium ICEM grid with rounded bilges with a time-step t = T /800.

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(a) Medium grid. Different time-steps.

(a) Sharp bilges.

(b) t = T /800. Different grids.

Figure 13.

Solution for different grids and time-steps.

T = 1.5s and

0 = 0.1rad .

(b) Rounded bilges.

Figure 15. Comparison of pressure contours [Pa] in the vicinity of the
bilges for T = 1.5s with 0 = 0.1rad . The medium ICEM grid is used
together with a time-step t = T /800.

(a) Results a for T = 1.5s with 0 = 0.1rad.

good compromise between accuracy of the results and computational time.

Figure 16 compares the added mass and damping coefficients as function of period and amplitude for both the sharp and
rounded bilge keels. Clearly, the added mass coefficient is not
significantly influenced by the period. For the sharp bilges, the
added mass increases when the amplitude also increases. This is
not the case for the rounded bilge keels, for which a small decrease is found. The added mass computed by DIFFRAC for
the sharp hull section are a = 0.044, 0.048 and 0.049 for
a roll period of 0.75, 1.0 and 1.5s respectively. The added
mass computed by DIFFRAC for the rounded hull section are
a = 0.040, 0.043 and 0.044 for a roll period of 0.75, 1.0 and
1.5s respectively. These results are valid for infinitely small amplitudes, and the comparison with the added mass analyzed from

(b) Results b for T = 1.5s with 0 = 0.1rad.

Rounded cornered rectangle, B = 0.28m, D = 0.112m,
R = 0.01m. Results a and b using different grid and time-steps.
Figure 14.

influence on the hydrodynamic coefficients investigated. These

studies were done for two combinations of amplitude-periods,
and 7 other scenarios are now computed. For all these computations, the medium ICEM grid is used with 30 outer-loops per
time-step and a time-step t = T /800. This is believed to be a

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the CFD calculations should be done with care. For the hull
with rounded bilge keels, where viscous effects are believed to
be limited, a very good agreement is found with the results of
DIFFRAC.
Finally, Figure 16 gives a clear overview of the differences
in the viscous damping between the sharp and rounded bilge
keels.It is observed that the damping coefficient increases both
when the periods decreases and when the amplitude increases. It
can be seen that the damping of the sharp configuration is much
higher than for the rounded configuration. This is due to the fact
that more vortices are generated by the sharp edges than by the
rounded edges, which leads to a higher eddy damping component bE . On Figure 16, a comparison between the experimental
data from Ikeda (corrected for free-surface effects) and numerical results from ReFRESCO is also shown for the damping coefficients. Note that the wave making component calculated by
potential code DIFFRAC is subtracted from the experimental results as presented in Table 1. The agreement between results is
considered very satisfactory.
(a) Results for a .

CONCLUSIONS
In this paper MARINs URANS code ReFRESCO is verified
and validated for roll damping applications. The unsteady flow
around a forced rolling hull section is computed for sections with
sharp and rounded bilges. For sharp bilges extensive sensitivity
studies have been carried out. Simulations are then computed
for 3 different periods and 3 different amplitudes on both section shapes and numerical results are compared to experimental
values.
Generally, the influence of grid resolution and time-step
size on the calculated moment is found to be relatively small.
However, a larger change is found in the analyzed added mass
and damping coefficients when refining the grid and time-step.
The added mass coefficient increases for smaller time-steps and
finer grids. The damping coefficient does not show a significant change for smaller time-steps, but a clear decrease can be
observed for finer grids. These coefficients do converge when
the grid and time-step are refined. A very fine grid (more than
700,000 cells in our case) and a time-step of t = T /800 or lower
should be used. Also, the iterative error study showed that a minimum of 100 outer-loops per time-step should be used in future
work.
For the hull with sharp bilge keels, computations are carried out with structured ICEM and unstructured hexahedral Hexpress grids. The differences in the moment time trace are very
small, but differences can be noticed on the hydrodynamic coefficients. This is believed to be due to a lower convergence level
achieved when using unstructured Hexpress grids than for the
structured ICEM grids, since the same numerical settings were
used. Therefore, we recommend to increase further the number
of outer-loop iterations when using Hexpress grids to improve
the iterative convergence.
Comparing the CFX results with those obtained with ReFRESCO it is observed that the shape of the computed moment
time-trace is slightly different in amplitude as well as in phase.
For the more difficult case T = 0.75s with 0 = 0.3rad the differences are smaller. The difference between CFX and ReFRESCO
in added mass and damping coefficient are approximately 10%

(b) Results for b .

Figure 16.

Plots of a and b as a function of period and amplitude.

for T = 1.5s with 0 = 0.1rad and 4 to 8% for T = 0.75s with

0 = 0.3rad. From these comparisons we conclude that using
CFX or ReFRESCO gives results that lie within 10% from each
other depending on grid resolution and time-step size used. Nevertheless, we emphasize that a fair comparison between different
codes using different numerical schemes and orders of accuracy
should be only done for the grid and time-step refined solution,
and taking into account numerical uncertainties of the results.
This should be done in a next phase of this project.
Finally, the added mass and damping coefficients are calculated as a function of period and amplitude for hulls with sharp
and rounded bilges. It is found that the added mass is not a
function of the period on the investigated range. The damping

10

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coefficient decreases when the period is increased and increases

when the amplitude is increased. For a roll period of T = 1.5s,
a comparison of the viscous roll damping between experimental
data and ReFRESCO results shows a good agreement. Also, the
comparison between the two types of bilges shows that the sharp
bilges lead to higher added mass and damping than the rounded
bilges, since the vortices are more strongly generated at the sharp
edges.
The results presented show that ReFRESCO is capable of
predicting the damping coefficients for roll motions of hull sections. In the future, CFD simulations with different types and
lengths of bilge keels will be considered. The influence of the
turbulence model should also be investigated. Furthermore the
free surface will be added, so that the total damping - including
the wave damping component - can be calculated using CFD.

[12]
[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors acknowledge Tim Bunnik and Adri van Dijk
(MARIN) for the discussions held on added mass and damping
modelling issues. We also acknowledge Francois Chanony (ENSIETA, France) and Sebastien Martin (Ecole Centrale Nantes,
France) for their interest and help in this project.

[17]
[18]

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