Practical hydrodynamic optimization of a trimaran

Abstract

An illustrative application of practical CFD tools to a simple ship design problem is presented. Four methods of analysis – a nonlinear method based on Euler’s equations and three linear potential flow methods – are used to determine the optimal location of the outer hulls of a trimaran. The main center hull and the outer hulls of the trimaran are shown in the frontispiece, together with the parameters a and b that define the arrangement of the hulls. The three potential flow methods correspond to a hierarchy of simple approximations based on the Fourier-Kochin representation of ship waves and the slender-ship approximation.

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