In order to improve the safety of ship navigation, this study focuses on virtually aided ship navigation strategies.

Two different inland river routes are chosen for the simulation of virtually aided ship navigation models based on the fluid-structure interaction mechanism, while taking the navigation rules and flow details of the rivers into consideration. The simulation of the ship sailing process on a typical inland river route under specific current conditions provides the corresponding virtually aided navigation plan in which the ship's velocity, location and course are obtained in a timely manner.

It is found that the simulation method established on the basis of Fluent can be used to solve the problems of multi-degree-of-freedom motion and fluid-structure interaction. When sailing through bends or branches, steering with a small rudder angle over long distances ensures safe navigation and prevents speed reduction and significant lateral displacement.

The proposed method can be effectively combined with the flow field information of digital channels to simulate the ship sailing process, thereby providing data support for the decision-making of intelligent navigation on inland river routes.

At present, the oil companies international marine forum (OCIMF) rules are frequently used to calculate wind load for large tankers and the American petroleum institute (API) rules for offshore platforms. However, due to the complexity of floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) superstructures, whether these two sets of rules can be applied to the wind load calculation of FPSO requires further study.

This paper establishes a numerical model of a 300000-ton class FPSO with a universal superstructure. The wind load on the FPSO under severe sea conditions and different wind angles is calculated and compared to the results of the rules. The shielding effect and heeling angle of the FPSO are analyzed.

The maximum heeling moment and wind load under an upright floating attitude appear at a 270° wind angle. The heeling moment and wind load under a heeling floating attitude are greater than those under an upright floating attitude, and the maximum heeling moment appears at a 10.5° heeling angle and a 280° wind angle. The results of the API and OCIMF rules show big differences compared with CFD: the differences between their results at a 270° wind angle and CFD are 13.6% and 24.5% respectively.

The flow field details obtained by numerical simulation are conducive to analyzing the shielding effect between superstructures and enhancing the accuracy of ship wind load prediction, thereby providing valuable references for the stability design of FPSO.