Hydrodynamic Design and Analysis of High Speed Catamaran with Hydrofoils Using CFD

A high speed catamaran with hydrofoils is frequently adopted for the fast sea transportation of a certain class. However, its hydrodynamic design is still quite challenging due to the complexity of high speed flow phenomena related to the performance estimations. Although a tank test is the primary method for performance estimation of conventional hulls, an accurate model test of high speed crafts is often very difficult due to the limitation of a model size and the speed of a towing carriage. Therefore, CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) technique is particularly attractive for a high speed vessel design. A ship to be designed in the present study is supposed to be operated for Okinawa islands services in Japan. New design requirements make hull form design more challenging than ever and CFD analysis is extensively used to improve design efficiency. A potential flow solver is used in a preliminary design stage and a Navier-Stokes solver in a final stage. Resistance properties including effects of hydrofoils are analyzed to provide performance evaluation data for hull form design.