Analysis for Resistance Reduction of an Amazon School Boat Through Hull Shape Modification Utilizing a CFD Tool

Abstract

AbstractThe waterway system of the Brazilian Amazonian region is one of the most complex in the world, being of vital importance for the daily circulation of passengers and cargo, and in this scenario, the FNDE (National Fund for Development of Education) provided the implementation of school boats for the transportation of riverine students to their classrooms. However, one of the school boat models presented operational inefficiency, as well as increased fuel consumption and travel duration. This work investigates the hydrodynamic causes of this inefficiency by analyzing dynamic pressure distributions on the hull, streamlines, and wave train generation and identifying hull shape regions that would hinder the flow. Through Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations and analysis, a hull shape modification is proposed in order to reduce the resistance to forward motion and a comparison is made with the results of another research report, using the same hull geometry and speed range in simulations performed in other CFD software. Due to the hydrodynamic analysis, it can be inferred that the prototype hull form is inappropriate for the proposed operation regime in this project, and an agreement on the resistance coefficient reduction rates can be observed between use of both software, where a maximum total resistance coefficient reduction of 25.06% is achieved.