Numerical and experimental study of wave resistance for trimaran hull forms

This paper investigates a systematic series of high-speed trimaran hull forms. Trimaran. vessels are currently of interest for many new high speed ship projects due to the high levels of hydrodynamic efficiency that can be achieved compared to mono-hull and catamaran hull forms. The core of the study involves determining the wave resistance for each model in the series in conjunction with varying longitudinal side hull locations. The methods employed to determine the wave resistance of each trimaran model comprise of computational fluid dynamics (CfD) suite SHIPFLOW, theoretical slender body theory and experimental investigations.

The trimaran hull forms are transom stem high-speed displacement hull form vessels possessing moderately high LIB ratios. A wide variety of data was acquired due to the parametric space and various side hull locations. As a result, these data shows clear trend from which accurate assessments could be made. Results presented in this paper offer considerable promise and it is envisaged that further work need to be completed before further understanding can be gained.