A vessel must always operate in the fluid domain. Hence, hydrodynamics plays a vital role in the multidisciplinary design process of a vessel that also includes engineering elements ranging from mechanical to electrical to structural.
In this article, we shall have a brief outlook about what are the aspects of hydrodynamics that are relevant in the vast realm of vessel design and naval architecture as a science without delving deeply into the granularity of applications.
Before we go any deeper, it is important to understand what hydrodynamics is.
Hydrodynamics, in simple terms, is a branch of physics (more specifically a discipline of fluid mechanics) that deals with the motion and action of fluids and the study of their effects on bodies directly interacting with them.
It is a more advanced domain of fluid mechanics that comes after understanding the physics of fluids at rest, better known as hydrostatics (velocity = 0). In real-world problems, it is not practically feasible to attain environments where a fluid domain under interest is under perfectly static conditions or has zero motion.
Thus, to study practical applications of fluid mechanics in the real world, any problem or system is better understood considering the hydrostatics and hydrodynamics of it discretely, that is observing its behaviour both under ideal static conditions and the theoretical dynamic conditions.
As any form of vessel, partially immersed like a ship, or fully immersed, like a submarine is always interacting with the fluid domain: water, hydrodynamics in a ship mostly deals with the following important parameters:
- The nature of fluid flow past the bodies
- Force dynamics of the fluid on the vessel
The former deals chiefly with the motion and control behaviour of the vessel while the latter deals with the response of the vessel to the various types of loading imparted by the fluid flow.
When we speak about the nature of fluid flow, we essentially focus our attention on how the fluid domain creates an environment for the vessel to: 1) travel from one point to another, 2) Remain stable under various circumstances, and 3) Change its course as and when required.
In a more technical sense, these three requirements give rise to some of the most critical areas of naval sciences and ocean engineering that are influenced by the ambit of practical hydrodynamics.
While the tendency of a vessel to travel from point A to B is governed by various problems in hydrodynamics like resistance and propulsion, the stability (dynamic) of a vessel is measured in terms of seakeeping (static stability and flotation of a vessel are governed by the fundamental principles of hydrostatics, the other basic domain of fluid mechanics), and directionality is considered a subject of manoeuvring and course-keeping, all of these mostly separate but often interrelated…
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