Validation and verification of a planing craft motion prediction model based on experiments conducted on full-size crafts operating in real sea

Planing crafts encounter large accelerations and motions when operated at high speeds in a seaway. To enhance their design and operability, accurate prediction of the accelerations and motions which these crafts will exhibit in a seaway is necessary. Here, validation and testing of a computational model for motion assessment of a planing craft in a seaway (MAPCS) are presented. To the best of the author’s knowledge, the literature does not contain studies of validation and verification of motion prediction models with full-size crafts operated in a real sea. The presented experiments were conducted on two planing crafts significantly different in size—a small remotely controlled craft (retrofitted Jet-Ski) and a large 24.8-m craft—both operated in a real sea. The MAPCS model, based on two-dimensional strip theory, improves previously developed motion assessment models by embedding within it a near-transom pressure correction and improved added-mass theory and provides computed values for acceleration, angular velocity, and expected motions. The incoming sea waves were measured by a wave buoy, deployed separately and developed in-house, and validated using a standard ocean observatory wave buoy. The wave-induced pitch and vertical acceleration computed by the MAPCS model are compared with the experimental recorded data and the differences are addressed.