Effects of Surface Tension in the Near Field Wave Breaking of Ships

When model experiments are performed the viscous and surface tension forces are not scaled accordingly. Thus not all of the features of the flow can be satisfactorily reproduced at model scale. A comparative set of experiments for measuring the model resistance, the free surface elevation and the flow velocity in the near field, have been carried out for models of different scales for evaluating the influence of the dimensions in reproducing the complete wave breaking dynamics. The resistance curves of the models show that the scale effect is present both for low and high speeds. Comparison of the averaged surface elevation reveals that the largest model possess already some of the full scale features. The comparison of the flow velocity fields highlights substantial differences among the models in the formation of the vortical structures. The influence of these vortices on the free surface is discussed and a correlation with surface scars is proposed. Copyright © 2008 by ASME.