Validation for full scale Ranse simulation of resistance prediction for high speed catamarans

The scope of the present work is to investigate the validity of CFD simulation for the prediction of the resistance for high and medium speed RoPax catamarans. The case study considered here concerns INCAT Tasmania hull 061, an aluminium built catamaran driven by a set of 4 steering Wartsila water-jets The hull studied here has been considered bare and thus the conditions during the sea trials, from where the data for the correlation is sourced , may not be effectively replicated in a CFD virtual towing tank. Despite these limitations, this work shows the potential for using full scale CFD simulations for an initial estimation of the powering requirement of a high speed Wave Piercing Catamaran. The outcome of the work is promising since fair agreement is found between the CFD and full scale data. Nevertheless, the CFD modelling is complex owing to the number of variables involved and it remains the case that CFD must be used with caution.