Design practice for the stern hull form of a twin-skeg ship

Abstract

Hydrodynamic standards have been derived for the improvement of propulsive performance of twin-skeg hull forms. Three important physical observations were used in the optimization of design practice for the stern hull form of twin-skeg ships: limiting streamline pattern on the inner and outer skeg surface of a stern skeg, the balance between the flow intensity over the inner and outer skeg surface of a stern skeg and nominal wake distribution in the propeller plane. Numerical calculations and model tests have been compared to validate a CFD code used in the current work. Based on the stern flow analysis for the evaluation of self-propulsion performance, effects of stern skeg arrangement on the propulsion efficiency, i.e. the distance between skegs and the angle of the skeg with respect to shaft centerline, were intensively investigated. An optimized hull form design for a twin-skeg ship was developed using the design practice derived in this work.