A Study on the Motion of Partial Air Cushion Support Catamaran in Regular Head Waves

In this paper, the motion of partial air cushion support catamaran (PACSCAT) sailing in regular waves was firstly investigated by the experimental method. The monitored histories of heave, pitch, midship acceleration, and air cushion pressure in towing tests are performed to analyze the influence of air cushion on the periodicity feature of hull body motion. Subsequently, using the finite volume method (FVM)-based CFD software Star-ccm, numerical simulations are carried out for the PACSCAT model with a simplification of the air cushion system. The detailed flow information of wave evolution, pressure, and velocity distribution is investigated. The calculated oscillation characteristics of different motion parameters are compared with those from experiment and show good agreement. The numerical method also has good capacity in the prediction of amplitude response of heave and midship acceleration; however, large error is found when calculating resistance and amplitude response of pitch.