Numerical analysis of the flow around a cylinder for the perspective of correlations of the drag coefficient of the ship’s hulls

Abstract

The flow around cylinder open the path for studying more complex shape bodies like the ship’s hulls. The hydrodynamic properties of the ship’s hulls can be decomposed as combinations of the flow properties of simpler bodies like flat plates, cylinders, ellipses, spheres and ellipsoids. The aim of this study is to describe the flow around a cylinder based on simulations with platforms like Comsol and Ansys that further can be compared with experimental and analytical results. The drag force caused by the flow around cylinders can be combined with the drag force of simple elements like flat plates, ellipses in order to correlate with the drag force of a specific hull of ship. Cylinder is a case that offers with its simplicity the possibility to check the results in all three ways: analytical, computational and experimental. An exhaustive analysis of this shape offers a beginning path for generalizing the external flows like the application of the superposition theory for complex geometries.