Abstract:
In the present work IsoGeometric Analysis (IGA), initially proposed by
Hughes et al (2005), is applied to the solution of the boundary integral
equation associated with the Neumann-Kelvin (NK) problem and the
calculation of the wave resistance of ships, following the formulation by
Brard (1972) and Baar & Price (1988). As opposed to low-order panel
methods, where the body is represented by a large number of quadrilateral
panels and the velocity potential is assumed to be piecewise constant (or
approximated by low degree polynomials) on each panel, the isogeometric
concept is based on exploiting the NURBS basis, which is used for
representing exactly the body geometry and adopts the very same basis
functions for approximating the singularity distribution (or in general the
dependent physical quantities). In order to examine the accuracy of the
present method, in a previous paper Belibassakis et al (2009), numerical
results obtained in the case of submerged bodies are compared against
analytical and benchmark solutions and low-order panel method
predictions, illustrating the superior efficiency of the isogeometric
approach. In the present paper we extent previous analysis to the case of
wave-making resistance problem of surface piercing bodies. The present
approach, although focusing on the linear NK problem which is more
appropriate for thin ship hulls, it carries the IGA novelty of integrating CAD
systems for ship-hull design with computational hydrodynamics solvers.