EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH RELATIVE TO IMPROVING THE HYDRODYNAMIC PERFORMANCE OF OCEAN GOING TUG/BARGE SYSTEMS PART A, RESISTANCE AND PROPULSION EXPERIMENTS

This report presents the results of resistance and propulsion experiments conducted with three tug/barge concepts. Concept I consists of a tug and barge coupled together to form a rigid body and Concept II permits only relative pitch freedom. Concept III is similar to Concept II in that the same barge and pin location was used and relative pitch freedom. The resistance experiments showed little difference between the Series 60 parent hull and the Case I tug/barge system. For Case 2, the effective horsepower was 15% greater than for Case 1. For the Case 3 configuration, the effective horsepower was 21% greater than for case 1 at design speed and draft. The propulsion experiments also reflect the increases in resistance.