Modelling Complex Wingtanks

The image below shows the tank arrangement that we will model in this tutorial.
It is important to distinguish between the Hull surfaces and the Internal Structure
surfaces.

In this tutorial, the Internal Structure surfaces are modelled inside Maxsurf in
order to be able to create the tank with the skewed longitudinal bulkhead.
Modelling Complex Wingtanks - Concepts
See the manual section on Tank Forming to understand the steps that Hydromax
takes in the background to form a tank. Important to remember from that:
There are 3 ingredients to form a tank: bounding box, internal structure
suraces and hull envelope
Hydromax will first clip to the internal structure surfaces (boundary
surfaces)
Then to the hull
And finally to the bounding box

With this approach, any shape of tank can be modelled. Luckily - for most ships
most tanks are rectangular and can be defined without using Internal Structure
surfaces.
Modelling Complex Wingtanks Video
Click here to go to the Hydromax Training website and see the sequence of
events required to form these complex wingtanks; starting by inserting structure
surfaces in Maxsurf to forming the compartments in Hydromax.
Modelling Complex Wingtanks Procedures
1. Maxsurf surface modelling
First step is to model the surfaces in Maxsurf. In this tutorial we will not go
through that step-by-step, but the following guidelines are given:
Insert one surface at a time
Use the Properties Pane (>v13) to adjust the control point
positions
Duplicate the surface with appropriate offset, rename, change
colour, and bond edges if applicable
Use Surfaces window to set all tank surfaces to Structure use
Use Assembly Pane to organise your surfaces in Maxsurf
Check your trimming in Perspective view & individual sections in
Body Plan view
Save regularly

2. Hydromax model loading
Use the default precision option and a reasonable number of sections (200 if you
have a fast computer).

Dont forget to check your model after loading it into Hydromax. See the
Hydromax Model section for instructions.

You can visualise your Internal Structure surface edges by turning on
Display | Visibility | Internal Edges

3. Hydromax Tank modelling
Starting with the main hold and using the surface names as in the image above,
Go to the Input window and switch to the Compartment tab, or
use the toolbar:

File | New Compartment Definition
This will add your first Tank so now, working from left to right through the
table:
Name the Tank Main Hold
Set the Compartment Type to Compartment
Skip the columns until you get to the Column called Aft
This is the Aft boundary of the Bounding box that will be used to clip this
compartment
Set Aft clipping to 60 m and set Fwd clipping to 80 m
The transverse clipping for this compartment can be any value >7.8 m.
Remember that the compartment will be clipped back to the hull & the Internal
Structure surfaces as well, so it does not matter if you enter 25 m or 7.8 m here.
Set the F Port clipping to -12 and F Starboard clipping to 12 m.
Note: Remember that positions on the Port side of the ship are always negative.
For the same reason as above, you can also specify any values you like for the
Top and Bottom clipping. As long as Bottom <1.2 m and Top >12 m.
Set the Bottom clipping to 0 and Top to 12 m.
After defining the bounding box, it is always a good idea to check your work:
Switch to perspective view window
Switch tanks & compartments on using the toolbar:


Now it is time to select which Structure surfaces to use for the main
Compartment
Click in the cell in the Boundary Surfaces column
This will display the following list of available Internal Structure surfaces:

For the MainHold compartment:
select the surfaces as in the dialog above
These surfaces form an open U-shaped contour symmetrical about the CL (Black
Lines below) that can be closed by a single line across the top (dashed black line
below):

Now select Analysis | Update Loadcase to form the compartment
Go to Perspective view to inspect your compartment,
Make sure you have Compartments displayed, Tank sections On, Hull sections
off.
Hide the hull edges by unticking edges from the Display | Visibility
dialog: