Practical hydrodynamic optimization of a trimaran

An illustrative application of practical CFD tools to a simple ship design problem is presented. Four methods of analysis - a nonlinear method based on Euler's equations and three linear potential flow methods - are used to determine the optimal location of the outer hulls of a trimaran. The main center hull and the outer hulls of the trimaran are shown in the frontispiece, together with the parameters a and b that define the arrangement of the hulls. The three potential flow methods correspond to a hierarchy of simple approximations based on the Fourier-Kochin representation of ship waves and the slender-ship approximation.