Numerical simulation of tidal currents around Korea/Japan strait and application to speed trial

The speed performance of a vessel is a very important factor for shipbuilding companies and its owners, because the operating costs and time will increase, if the vessel could not qualify the contracted speed. Therefore, in the last phase of construction of a vessel, a shipbuilding company will perform a sea trial to measure the vessel´s speed performance. Korean shipbuilding companies sometimes have carried out the sea trials around the western channel of Korea/Japan strait, where the flow fields are very complicated due to the effect of various flows. Because the interference by these flows to a ship seems to be significantly high, the numerical reproduction of the flow-fields in the vicinity of the target sites can help better understanding the sea environments and performing the sea trials. In this study, we used the MEC ocean model to simulate the tidal currents around Tsushima Island and compared the simulated tidal amplitudes and currents with those of measurements by W.J. Teague. The tidal amplitudes of present simulation results agree well with the observations. Based on the numerical simulation, the optimal direction and proper sites for a speed trial were described.