CFD Simulation of the Safety of Unmanned Ship Berthing under the Influence of Various Factors

Featured Application This work is used for the unmanned driving of vehicles. The safety of unmanned ship berthing is of paramount importance. In order to explore the influence of wind and wave coupling, a berthing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was established, and the characteristics of speed field, pressure field, and vortex have been obtained under different speed, wind direction, and the quay wall distances. The results show that the total resistance of the hull against the current can be about 1.60 times higher compared to the downstream resistance, water flow resistance is the dominant factor, accounting for more than 80% of the total resistance. When changing the distance between ship and shore at fixed speed, the results found that the torque is small, but the growth rate is very large when driving below 2 m/s, and the torque growth rate is stable above 2 m/s. Based on the established coupling model, a multi-factor berthing safety study is carried out on an actual unmanned ship. The results show that when the speed increases from 4 m/s to 12 m/s, the curve slope is small, the resistance increases from 3666 N to 18,056 N, and the rear slope increases. The pressure increases with the speed, and when the speed is 24 m/s, the maximum pressure is up to 238,869 Pa. When the wind speed is fixed, the vertical force of the unmanned ship increases first and then decreases to zero and then reverses the same law change, and the maximum resistance is about 425 N at the wind angle of about 45 degrees; At 90 degrees, the maximum lateral force on an unmanned boat is about 638 N. The above results can provide control strategy for unmanned ship berthing safety, and provide theoretical basis for unmanned ship route planning and obstacle avoidance, safety design, etc.