The Design of a Hull form with the Minimum Total Resistance

Abstract

In order to obtain a hull form which exhibits low resistance and highly-efficient energy-saving performance, the overall resistance should be calculated as the sum of wave-making and viscous resistance, in which the total resistance corresponds to the objective function whereas the hull geometry parameters correspond to design variables. Apart from considering the limited conditions due to appropriate displacement, we further ponder over the boundary-layer viscous separation caused by additional constraints. We then proceed to apply the Nonlinear Programming Method (NLP) to determine the hull form with the minimum total resistance. This paper aims to optimize the streamlined design of the S60 so as to get an improved hull form in which lower resistance and smoother hull lines are evident. This suggests that there is no significant increase in viscous resistance during the process of hull form optimization with the wave-making resistance as the objective function. Therefore, this confirms the feasibility of optimizing the hull form by the NLP method.