Vortex shedding of hulls in close proximity with relative motion

The safe and efficient offloading of liquid natural gas (LNG) in a side-by-side configuration has emphasised the need to accurately quantify the hydrodynamic responses of floating bodies when located in very close proximity. A new series of computational results are presented for the forced roll of a hull in the presence of a second body representative of a floating FLNG facility. The vortex shedding phenomenon which provides a significant contribution to the damping of an isolated hull, is demonstrated to be modified by the presence of the second body. The total damping coefficients were found to be significantly reduced by approximately 50 percent for the very small gap widths considered. It is shown that in addition to the modification of the local shedding dynamics, the variation in the pressure field owing to the presence of the second body also contributes significantly to the reduction in the damping. The findings will be of particular interest to the offshore industry for improving and optimising offloading practices.