Application of dynamic overlapping grids to the simulation of the flow around a fully-appended submarine

Abstract The hydrodynamic characterization of control appendages for ship hulls is of paramount importance for the assessment of maneuverability characteristics. However, the accurate numerical simulation of turbulent flow around a fully appended maneuvering vessel is a challenging task, because of the geometrical complexity of the appendages and of the complications connected to their movement during the computation. In addition, the accurate description of the flow within the boundary layer is important in order to estimate correctly the forces acting on each portion of the hull. To this aim, the use of overlapping multi-block body fitted grids can be very useful to obtain both a proper description of each particular region in the computational domain and an accurate prediction of the boundary layer, retaining, at the same time, a good mesh quality. Moreover, block-structured grids with partial overlapping can be fruitfully exploited to control grid spacing close to solid walls, without propagation of undesired clustering of grid cells in the interior of the domain. This approach proved to be also very useful in reducing grid generation time. In the present paper, some details of the flow simulation around a fully appended submarine is reported, with emphasis on the issues related to the complexities of the geometry to be used in the simulations and to the need to move the appendages in order to change the configuration of the various appendages.