Nearfield Hydrodynamic Interactions of Ships in Shallow Water

The hydrodynamic interactions of two vessels moving at the same speed in nearfield is considered by applying the slender-body theory. It is shown that, for a water depth that is the same order as the beam of the vessel, the problem reduces to a sequence of inner problems in the cross-flow plane. This reduction to strip-theory allows one to obtain the solution without the necessity of solving an outer problem. Applications were made to two pairs of ship models. Theoretical predictions generally are high as compared with available experimental measurments, but offer a fairly satisfactory qualitative description of the interaction phenomenon when the length of the overlap of the vessels is large as compared with the separation.