Numerical Investigation of Motion Response of the Tanker at Varying Vertical Center of Gravities

The vertical center of gravity (VCG) has a significant impact on the roll motion response of a surface ship, particularly oil tankers based on the oil level in the tanker after discharging oil at several stations or positional changes, such as changes in the superstructure and deck structure. This study examined the motion response of the Korea very large crude carrier 2 (KVLCC2) at various VCGs, especially roll motion when the VCG changed. The potential theory in the Ansys AQWA program was used as a numerical simulation method to calculate the motion response. On the other hand, the calculations obtained through potential theory overestimated the roll amplitudes during resonance and lacked precision. Therefore, roll damping is a necessary parameter that accounts for the viscosity effect by performing an experimental roll decay. The roll decay test estimated the roll damping coefficients for various VCGs using Froude’s method. The motion response of the ship in regular waves was evaluated for various VCGs using the estimated roll-damping coefficients. In addition, the reliability of the numerical simulation in motion response was verified with those of the experiment method reported elsewhere. The simulation results showed that the responses of the surge, sway, heave, pitch, and yaw motion were not affected by changing the VCG, but the natural frequency and magnitude of the peak value of the roll motion response varied with the VCG.