May 18, 2022
by Jeffrey Bowles, P.E. & Jonathan Soja
Presented at the Fourth Chesapeake Power Boat Symposium
Our Thoughts on this Paper
We talk a lot about going fast here at DLBA. Speed is exhilarating, right? Well, we have to remember that it is not the end-all be-all requirement for water borne craft. There is a little thing called seakeeping, and in its realm, size does matter! Passengers want an enjoyable, comfortable ride – not one filled with large motions and jarring accelerations. The bigger the boat, the softer the ride, but often times you can’t just make the boat bigger.
That’s when naval architects have to roll up their sleeves to design a boat that has great ride quality, but also stick to size constraints. In these situations, when adding size and/or weight is not an option, we look to develop the hull form and refine the weight distribution to reduce vertical accelerations. In order to assess the impact of design tradeoffs, a solid routine is required for predicted vertical accelerations. There are many tools and techniques out there, and in the article: “Comparative Analysis of Common Methods for Predicting Vertical Acceleration of Hard Chine Planing Monohulls including Correlation to Hydrodynamic Model Test Data,” it looks at how a couple of those methods stack up against each other, and against model test data. Take a look and see how it compares to your team’s approach for predicting accelerations and let us know what you think!
If you would like to engage in a technical discussion, please reach out to a member of the DLBA team! Contact Us.
DLBA Naval Architects
860 Greenbrier Circle, Suite 201 Chesapeake, Virginia 23320 USA
Phone: 757-545-3700 | Fax: 757-545-8227 | dlba@gibbscox.com
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