Abstract: In order to further improve the prediction precision of underwater towed system, this paper treats cable and surface towing ship as a whole, and proposed a scheme to investigate the steady and dynamic response of cabletowing ship system using numerical method when the system was under maneuver of surface ship’s rudder and propeller, in which the coupling effect between cable and towing ship plays an important role. The MMG model was introduced to describe the motion of surface towing ship, while the cable was modeled by classic Lumped Mass Method; the kinematic and dynamic boundary conditions between them were proposed to unite cable and ship together and thus result in the whole mathematical model, which was solved by the 4th order RungeKutta integration procedure. Numerical simulation was carried out to analyze the system’s response. The results illustrate that the coupling effect between them would lower the velocity and loop maneuver performance of system, and the prediction precision is improved for the ship’s kinematic response of itself is considered during maneuvering process.

Key words: towed cable, ship maneuverability, boundary condition, numerical simulation