Effect of Anti-fouling Coatings and Biofouling on Ship Hydrodynamic Performance

EasyChair Preprint 10254

Abstract

Bioaccumulation of the ship’s submerged region would increase the hydrodynamic volume and poses a major source of carbon emissions to the atmosphere. This accumulation of marine growth on the ship’s hull creates additional drag and demands more fuel consumption, predominantly leading to adverse effects on the marine ecosystem. Anti-fouling coatings are one of the primary method adopted for a smooth hull, however, the smoothness of the hull surface are significantly depend on the type and the chemical composition of the coatings. The present paper investigates the effect of frictional drag on a flat plate under different composition of anti-fouling coatings, and effect of various biofouling conditions on a ship’s submerged hull. The numerical analysis of anti-fouling coatings on the flat plate is conducted using CFD for seven cases, viz., smooth, sandpaper and five anti-fouling cases. However, six conditions of biofouling are considered on the selected ship hull - smooth and five biofouling cases. To regenerate the appropriate roughness factor, the Colebrook-type roughness functions are used from the literature. The effect of antifouling coatings and biofouling on the flat plate and ship’s hull is predicted and analyzed for various speeds of operation. The results from this work would assist to predict the remaining life and appropriate docking period, selecting the suitable antifouling coatings. This prediction would help in optimizing the fuel consumption with new CII requirements.

Keyphrases: Antifouling coating, Biofouling, CFD, Decarbonization, Hull roughness

@booklet{EasyChair:10254,
  author    = {K Abhiroop and Shameem Basheer Mohammed},
  title     = {Effect of Anti-fouling Coatings and Biofouling on Ship Hydrodynamic Performance},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 10254},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2023}}