Numerical and experimental analysis of wave-resistance reduction of asymmetric di-hull systems by exploiting interference effects

A reduction in vessel powering leads to lower fuel consumption and a cleaner environment. Certain combinations of hull spacings and forward speeds for a di-hull system can bring about significant wave-resistance reduction because of the interference effects of ship-generated waves. In this paper, the Interference Resistance [1] (Yeung et al., SNAME Trans, 2004) and the resulting reduction for a di-hull system, made up of two distinct Series 60 hulls, are carefully studied. A search of the configuration, in terms of stagger and separation combination, for the most beneficial reduction is first conducted by using the fast computational theory of [1]. The results are compared with experimental measurements in tow-tank tests as well as with results from a hybrid solution that uses the longitudinal wave-cut information from the individual hulls. Considerable amount of wave-resistance reduction using the predicted configuration is in fact realizable. Various factors that are responsible for the difference between experimental and computational results are briefly discussed. © 2016 Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers. All rights reserved.