Study on the effect of marine propeller wake on sediment siltation in a shallow water channel

In order to investigate the impact of marine propeller wake fields on sediment siltation in shallow water channels, this study employs the unsteady RANS approach and the Volume of Fluid model. A full-scale numerical self-propulsion test was conducted on a 50,000 DWT oil tanker under the influence of a free surface. The research includes forecasting the effect of propeller wakes on sediment redeposition following the dredging of the approach channel to Jiaxing Port in the China Sea. Initially, uncertainty research was carried out on the full-scale ship and propeller system, and the credibility of the computational results was quantified. The simulated results based on the sediment transport numerical model were then compared and validated against actual data from monitoring stations. The self-propulsion performance and the velocity distribution of the propeller wake were examined under three different propeller speeds. Scenarios simulated included no ship navigation, daily single-ship navigation, and daily two-ship navigation, evaluating the siltation distribution within the channel over one month. The results demonstrate that ship propeller wakes positively influence the reduction of channel sedimentation, with the maximum monthly siltation reduction reaching 0.108 m during single-ship tidal navigation and 0.11 m during two-ship tidal navigation.