Flow Vectors Around an Escort Tug at a Large Yaw Angle

The flow around a ship at yaw angles beyond those encountered during manoeuvres has not been the subject of much research reported in the literature. These conditions are particularly important for an escort tug, since it uses large yaw angles to generate hydrodynamic forces that are used to control a ship (normally a tanker) in the event of an emergency. This paper presents CFD predictions for the flow around an escort tug at a yaw angle of 45 degrees and compares them to PIV measurements of the flow patterns. The CFD code predicts the essential features measured within the flow, such as the separation of the flow from the upstream bilge, and the formation of a large vortex generated by the low aspect ratio fin. The predicted vectors were compared with the measured ones using a numerical technique, and the agreements were found, on average, to be within 10%. This level of agreement was within the estimated uncertainty of the PIV system used for the experiments.