A prototype of submersible surface ship and its hydrodynamic characteristics

Abstract

The submersible surface ship (SSS) is a new concept ship that avoids rough seas by going underwater using downward lift of wings and keeping residual buoyancy for safety. A prototype of SSS consisting of a hull, a pair of main wings, and a pair of horizontal tail wings is proposed, where mathematical formulae represent the forms of main hull and bridge deck. The circular motion test clarified the characteristics of hydrodynamic forces and moments acting on a model of the prototype SSS in vertical and lateral motions. The tank tests revealed how the main and the tail wing angles affect the total hydrodynamic forces and moments as well as how their performance interact each other. The test data also tell the variation of hydrodynamic characteristics of different submerged depth and different longitudinal position of the bridge deck. Comparisons of the estimated linear hydrodynamic derivatives with those obtained by the test data analysis validate the estimation method. A mathematical model is presented to describe the observed phenomenon that the aileron angle in lateral motion induces the vertical force and pitch moment, which leads a coupled vertical and lateral motion of the prototype SSS.