Whole-Ship Airflow-to-Convective-Boundary Mapping for Polar-Ship Winterization Zoning

Winterization of polar ships requires an engineering link between whole-ship airflow and local thermal boundaries. This study develops a one-way, whole-ship airflow-to-convective-boundary mapping framework for exposed superstructure components. Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulations using the RNG k–ε model were conducted for MV Xue Long 2 at seven wind directions and inflow velocities of 5–20 m/s. Representative surface-pressure trends were compared with measurements from a 1:400 wind-tunnel model. Source-reported monitoring-point results cover all seven directions from 0° to 180°. Velocities at 18 locations were converted to effective convective heat-transfer coefficients using a project-specific correlation and then supplied to an energy-conservation heat-loss framework. Representative dimensionless local velocities of 0.3–1.6 illustrate shielding and acceleration; they are not the extrema over all cases. For a representative comparison at 10 m/s inflow, local velocities of 3–16 m/s corresponded to correlation-derived coefficients of 31.53–86.35 W/(m2·K), compared with 63.55 W/(m2·K) for a uniform boundary. The resulting velocity and flow-topology information was used to define case-specific, mechanism-based screening zones. A 3.0 m bow fairing reduced the mean deck velocity from 10 to 3.9 m/s and the calculated coefficient by 42.9%. The study therefore demonstrates aerodynamic-to-convective-boundary screening rather than a fully validated bidirectional fluid–thermal or phase-change model; phase-change loads and transferable zoning thresholds require further validation.