Experimental and numerical investigation on the resistance characteristics of a high-speed planing catamaran in calm water

There has been an increasing interest in high-speed planing catamaran hulls for their exceptional resistance performance in military and maritime transportation fields. In this paper, experimental tests and numerical investigation on a planing catamaran under different displacements are performed to analyze the resistance characteristics and mechanism of the tunnel flow. Model tests are conducted in a towing tank for the Froude number ranging from 0.76 to 1.93. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code incorporated with dynamic overset mesh technique is employed to simulate the flow around the planing catamaran in calm water. The numerical results are validated with measured data and show good agreement. The mean error in the trim angle and the resistance took the whisker spray drag into account are 8.9% and 4.5%, respectively. Numerical results of pressure, comparisons of wave profile along transom stern centerline, lift force distribution on the tunnel, and components of tunnel lift are presented and compared for the analysis of tunnel flow under different displace-ments. The tunnel could contribute the maximum lift about 26% of ship weight in the case of M = 202.9 kg. This study would provide a better understanding of hydrodynamics and the aerodynamics of the tunnel for the planing catamaran.