Fusing sensor data with CFD results using gappy POD

In this study, the gappy Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) method is adopted to fuse wind-tunnel measured pressure and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation results to reconstruct the pressure field and calculate the force coefficients on a marine vessel. The technique is demonstrated for wind load evaluations on the LNG carrier GALEA. With 24 pressure sensor data from wind tunnel tests, the pressure distributions on the whole vessel surface are reconstructed successfully, and the force coefficients obtained from the gappy POD show a reasonable agreement with the wind-tunnel measured results and those obtained from CFD simulations. In addition, sensitivity studies have been carried out to determine the minimum sensor number requirement and sensor deployment strategies for gappy POD to achieve high accurate force coefficient evaluations. •The gappy POD is adopted to fuse the wind-tunnel measured pressure and CFD data.•The pressure distributions are reconstructed successfully by the gappy POD.•Results from the gappy POD show a reasonable match to the wind-tunnel test data.•The gappy POD results are sensitive to sensor numbers and deployment strategies.•The gappy POD requirements for sensor numbers and positions help probe arrangements.