Application Of A Panel Method To The Hydro Dynamic Analysis Of Advanced Vehicles

Abstract

The present paper illustrates the potentialities of a Rankine source panel method to the hydrodynamic analysis of advanced vehicles. The framework of the mathematical model was the linear steady Rankine source formulation for the mono hulls wave resistance characterisation presented in ref 1. The theoretical formulation of the linearized boundary value problem for the steady wave perturbation which takes into account also the perturbation due to an air supported catamaran (SES) is provided. Extension of the monohull methodology has been carried out to account for twin hull configurations and air cushion catamarans. The former problem was more troublesome from a computational point of view as it involved a redefinition of the free surface grid and of the finite difference operator in the transverse direction. The latter problem was accomplished by adding some terms into the free surface boundary condition. All the hydrodynamic computation is evaluated for given trim and draft conditions assuming a given fixed geometry. Equilibrium condition can be obtained by the user by iteratively running the program. Applications are herein presented for simple configurations in order to validate the methodology.