An experimental test has been conducted to measure the six degrees-of-freedom motions of a remote-controlled model attempting to hold heading while at forward speed in a two-dimensional wave field. During testing, the two underlying components of the wave field were always orthogonal to each other but various relative headings of the model to the dominant wave were explored. Of particular interest is understanding the nonlinear effects of the two distinct underlying wave encounter frequencies on the model response and the severity to which it causes the response in the two-dimensional wave field to differ from the linear summation of responses from equivalent one-dimensional waves. Since the experimental data contains the full wave-wave and wave-ship interactions of the two-dimensional wave field, we will use numerical results from the Digital, Self-consistent Ship Experimental Laboratory (DiSSEL) to generate the necessary one-dimensional wave results. This allows us to compare the predicted ship response motions from linear superposition of two one-dimensional wave field responses to the measured motions in a two-dimensional wave field for various relative wave heading combinations. It will be shown that for waves forward of beam, the predicted pitch results from superposition are fairly accurate while the roll prediction is not. However, for waves aft of beam, the motion predictions from linear superposition of pitch and roll are both poor. In such aft of beam cases, the disagreement can be quite large due to deviations in the ship heading caused by drift forces.
Exact controllability for a one-dimensional wave equation in non-cylindrical domains
