Methodology for the Assessment of the Effect of Wave Wash on Moored Small Craft

Abstract: Wake wash problems are a rather recent issue within the maritime industry. They involve the potential harmful effects that the waves generated by ships can produce. Erosion of the shore, smothering of local fauna and excessive motion of vessels are just examples of these effects. Having accurate infor-mation about the probability and severity of wake wash problems is funda-mental in the design stage of a vessel, a shipping route or a channel passage. A detailed study of previous works and existing tools for simulating the poten-tial different harmful effects of wake wash is performed in order to understand the challenges with wake wash simulations. From the conclusions of the study, a procedure has been developed to evaluate different wake wash problems. The procedure relies in an OpenFOAM based tool to obtain the generated wave. A boundary element method software: AQWA; is used to evaluate ex-cessive motion as a potential harmful effect. The potential of the procedure is tested with a validation study and a practical application. The practical case consists in the evaluation of wake wash effects on a moored vessel. From the validation study it is concluded that the wave generation prediction is accu-rate. On the other hand, the practical case presents the developed methodol-ogy as a fast, precise and inexpensive alternative for wake wash evaluation.