POTENTIAL FLOW BASED OPTIMIZATION OF A HIGH SPEED, FOIL-ASSISTED, SEMI-PLANNING CATAMARAN FOR LOW WAKE

In this paper, a sensitivity analysis and the numerical optimization of an initial design for a fast foil-assisted catamaran ferry are described, with the goal of both reducing wakes and increasing fuel efficiency. The procedure is split into two phases: 1. Starting from an initial design, a set of new hull shapes was automatically generated and evaluated, via a potential flow solver. These results were successively used to derive information about the influence of each design parameter. 2. A multi-objective design problem, with 3 objective functions, was formulated and solved and the best trade-off solutions (belonging to the Pareto optimal set) were identified. The potential flow optimization lead to a new hull geometry that was optimized in terms of bow shape, foil thickness, foil position, and demi-hull spacing providing a basis for improvements by the naval architect and the starting point for a more detailed optimization with a RANS solver.