A coupled experimental and numerical investigation of the bubbly wake of a ship model in towing tank.

This paper proposes a novel coupled experimental and numerical simulation for the evolution of bubbly wake of ship models in confined towing tank basins. Firstly, near-field bubbly wake characteristics of the model ship are obtained using optical light scattering measurements which provide the temporal variations of the integrated wake strength, its spatial distribution, and bubble size analysis. Then computational fluid dynamic tools combined with a bubble clouds tracking method are implemented to study the wake attenuation in the far-field region. A comparison of the bubbly wake evolution in confined and unconfined mediums is also presented. Results show that the bubbly wake properties of a model ship towed in a confined channel may differ from a model towed in the open water. The main difference rises from the flow fluctuations induced by the confined channel which can lead to different wake persistence times. However, using the proposed schemes allows linking the near-field data obtained in towing tanks, with the wake attenuation behaviors of an open far-field domain hence, providing a feasible solution for a complex problem. Numerical results draw the importance of bubble dissolution and buoyant effects in the attenuation of bubbly wake in the far-field region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]