CFD study into full scale manoeuvring loads on an inland vessel passing an irregular bank

The ongoing transition towards more nature-friendly river banks in the Netherlands has shown to increase the irregularity of shorelines and underwater banks. Experience from inland shipping personnel shows that the presence of irregular banks (especially when submerged) can influence the water flow near the shore to the extent of causing unexpected significant manoeuvring loads on passing vessels. The additional lateral space required by the vessel to correct for these effects is then a direct result of the bank irregularity. For safety and efficient use of the waterways, Rijkswaterstaat (RWS), responsible for Dutch river maintenance, is interested in quantifying allowable irregular bank shapes. Both experiments (Robijns, 2014 and Exer, 2015) as well as CFD computations (Oud, 2017) haven been performed in an initial attempt to measure the hydrodynamic loads on a vessel as it passes an underwater obstacle. Based on the CFD results on model scale, a full scale numerical study has been proposed around an irregular bank modelled after the situation near Gennep along the Meuse river. The hydrodynamic loads on the moving vessel are determined with MARIN’s CFD ReFRESCO.