Numerical assessment of interference resistance for a series 60 catamaran

Abstract

An important consideration in the catamaran design is the distance between the hulls. Arrangement of the hulls in catamaran configuration can have strong influence on the wave making resistance and thus on the total resistance of a catamaran. The hydrodynamic interaction between hulls becomes significant when spacing between hulls is sufficiently small. In this paper, numerical simulations of viscous flow around monohull and catamaran model are performed utilizing commercial software package STAR-CCM+, in order to investigate the influence of spacing between hulls on the interference resistance. A mathematical model based on Reynolds Avaraged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations, k-ε turbulence model and Volume of Fluid (VOF) method for describing the motion of two-phase media are briefly described. Numerical simulations are performed for Series 60 monohull and two catamaran configurations with CB=0.6 for different values of Froude number. Results of performed numerical simulations are compared with experimental results available in the literature and satisfactory agreement has been achieved. It has been shown that CFD is a very useful tool in preliminary catamaran design.