Study and optimization of a deformable trimaran amphibious transport vehicle's resistance characteristic

Abstract

Amphibious transport vehicles have increasingly become an important tool for connecting water and land transportation, serving both water and land transport missions. However, due to the unique shape of amphibious vehicles, their sailing resistance is high, which severely restricts their widespread use. In this paper, a deformable trimaran amphibious transport vehicle with retractable side hulls is designed. Based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equation, a resistance prediction method for amphibious vehicles is established and verified through towing experiments. The resistance characteristic of the trimaran vehicle is studied and optimized. First, the effects of the side hull and its position on resistance performance are analyzed, and the sensitivity of position parameters is evaluated. Then, the bow plate angle on resistance is analyzed. Finally, a surrogate model of the side hull position parameters and the bow plate angle with resistance is established using the Kriging method. The Particle Swarm Optimization is used to search for the minimum resistance configuration Opt 2, which achieves a drag reduction effect of 19.84% at the design speed.