Numerical and Experimental Study of Blockage Effect Correction Method in Towing Tank

When a ship model test is performed in a tank, particularly when the tank is small and the ship model is relatively large, the blockage effect will inevitably occur. With increased ship model scale and speed, the blockage effect becomes more obvious and must be corrected. In this study, the KRISO 3600 TEU Container Ship (KCS) is taken as a model and computational fluid dynamics techniques and ship resistance tests are applied to explore the mechanism and correction method of the blockage effect. By considering the degrees of freedom of the sinkage and trim, the resistance of the ship model is calculated in the infinite domain and for blockage ratios of 1.5%, 1.8%, 2.2%, and 3.0%. Through analysis of the free surface, pressure distribution, and flow field around the ship model, the action law of the blockage effect is studied. The Scott formula and mean flow correction formula based on the average cross sectional area are recommended as the main correction methods, and these formulas are improved using a factor for the return flow velocity correction based on comparison of the modified results given by different formulas. This modification method is verified by resistance test data obtained from three ship models with different scale ratios.