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Design Aspects and Applications of Deep
Design Aspects and Applications of Deep
Abstract:
The recent increase of the demand for high speed which is being experienced especially in the
market of commercial ships, has given most shipyards the opportunity to improve and employ
their know-how in the design of fast vessels. The combined low powering and good
seaworthiness requirements, which are of vital importance in fast transportation, have stressed
the research and development of unconventional hull forms and determined the growth of
new ships typologies. Nowadays talking about vessels of more than 4000 tons of
displacement which can sail in calm seas at more than 40 knots and grant good seakeeping
and speed performances also for sea states higher that 4, is common. This is the field where
hard-chine monohulls and multihulls of various types have found their specific range of
applicability. Looking into the future, speed limits greater than 50 knots at the same cargo
capacity are awaiting the market maturity and extensive research activities are being carried
out at present by shipbuilders. For these requirements other types of ships, such as SES,
seems to be more suitable.
In this paper an assessment of the newest unconventional hull types which are currently under
construction or object of research projects in FINCANTIERI, is reviewed, focusing the
attention either on the methodology and tools employed in the design phase, either on the
peculiar hydrodynamic characteristics of each hull type. The use of the modern computational
fluodynamic tools (CFD) in the preliminary stage of the project is useful to reach a satisfying
solution which can fulfill the specifications. The validity and effectiveness of these types of
computer simulation programmes are discussed on the base of the results achieved in the
application on the latest designed ships which were tested in model scale and/or built. Some
criteria on the evaluation of the data which such programmes can provide is also included.
The powering, seakeeping and manoeuvring performances of Deep-V monohulls over
conventional round bilge hulls are analysed and critically discussed within their application to
fast ferries. Some interesting full scale results will be presented as well, with the aim to
validate the computational design methods.
IMDEX ’97 International Maritime Defence Exhibition & Conference, Greenwich-London, October 1997
1. Introduction
Fincantieri Naval Shipbuilding Division, has been involved in research projects of innovative hull forms for advanced
high speed naval ships and fast attack crafts, since years. These research activity has led to a number of design of
unconventional ships typology, aimed to grant the best possible solution in terms of the specific required performances.
Examples of these projects are small-medium size SES (from 200t up to 1000t), developed both for military and
merchant applications, i.e. for fast passenger transportation and for fast attack crafts or submarines identifications crafts,
which can grant very fast speeds (about 50 knots) and good seakeeping quality due to the modern enhanced ride control
systems.
By this experience acquired in the design of medium size SES, recently Fincantieri is the coordinator of some research
projects in the Brite Euram EC program, which cover all the main design aspects of a large ferry SES (150m LBP; 2000t
payload), such as hydro-aero dynamics, structures and machinery for propulsions and ship’s systems.
The research, based on a initial design of Fincantieri, has lead to some important conclusion regarding design
philosophy, model testing, main structure and components solutions and technology. An new original methodology for
the prevision of seakeeping properties of such large SES based on towing tank tests has been assessed as well. The
predicted performances has revealed very promising in terms of powering and seakeeping quality. As an example, to
carry a payload of 2000t at a speed of 50 knots the vessel requires about 80 MW, which is believed to be a relatively
small installed power if compared to a semiplanning hull or hybrid multihull with the same carrying capacity the same
operational speed.
Besides SES there are also deep-V hulls either applied to the design of fast ferries, FAC or fast frigate, SWATH ships
and fast catamarans, which are, at present, object of cooperational research in the CRS program.
Although the proposals and the technologies has been ready since the beginning of the 80’s, the market has registered an
interest in relatively heavy fast ships (service speeds around 40 knots and displacements larger than 1000t) starting from
the beginning of the 90’s, and mainly for commercial applications.
It was only with the construction and the challenge of the Destriero when Fincantieri itself and the world of shipping
turned their minds and begun to believe that speeds of more than 40 knots were not only possible but also simply
achievable. The word “simply” is relative to the technological effort which a construction of deep-V monohull, very
light, efficient and well perfoming in rough seas, needs in comparison with a conventional round bilge hull.
Through an extensive research program made of a ample number of towing tank tests and computer simulations, which
is still continuously programmed, today’s MDV series of deep-V monohulls have been developed.
The main factors encountered in designing a large deep-V monohull can be listed as follows:
At the end, for the improvement of the resistance characteristic of the hull, the designer can play, mainly, with small
modifications to the hull, as a proper keel-rise and accurate volume distribution to calibrate the LCB location to the
LCG estimate position and, as is the case, the introduction of a stern wedge, which will be discussed in the next
paragraph.
It is not to be neglect the intact and damaged stability, which is one of the main advantage of these types of hulls. The
peculiar almost triangular immersed sections continued from the bow down to the stern, in fact, make the waterline
transversal moment of inertia very large respect to the volume immersed, with a subsequent high position of the
metacentre over the keel. For having an idea on MDV1200LL fast ferry (figure b) the lowest metacentric height over the
keel is not less than 8.5m, respect to a depth of 10.5m. Such good intact stability gives a large degree of freedom in the
definition of the watertight bulkheads positions and enlarge the survivability of the damaged ship in rough seas. Ad hoc
towing tank tests of stability for the vessel with two damaged compartments in waves (it was the first example of these
tests for fast crafts) has demonstrated5 the survivability of the MDV1200LL up to irregular waves of significant height
of Hs=5m (Sea State 6÷7).
doubled.
The values measured at full scale agreed well with the towing tank tests which predicted a reduction of less than 1.5
knots for Hs=3.0m (no adverse wind) and 0.2 knots for Hs=2.0m. This fact is essentially due to the good seakeeping
characteristics of these hulls, which will be discussed later on.
As for displacement fast round bilge hulls, the resistance in still water is very sensible to the dynamic trim and sinkage
assumed at high speed by the hull.
A known device to play with for obtaining the desired trim and reducing the resistance, is a stern wedge. In the case of
figure d for the MDV1200, once optimized, it was able to reduce the still water resistance of the hull of about the 5% in
the high range of Froude numbers.
Series of towing tests have been made varying the inclination of the wedge and its shape. During the preliminary design
phase a number of CFD simulations were performed, using a linear potential flow panel method already successfully
applied to fast round bilge monohulls and catamarans6, to estimate the wave resistance of the hull with the various
solutions, and orientate the choice towards a restricted number of configurations. Considering potential flow, only, it
was found that inclination of 9-10 deg of the chosen configuration offered the lowest wave resistance. Towing tank tests,
confirmed partially the trends of the results predicted by the programs. It was found, in fact, that increasing the wedge
angle over the optimum experimental entity, causes a decrease in running trim as was predicted by the CFD program,
but leaves the resistance almost unchanged.
Waterjets were chosen as propulsive devices for the MDV. In fact, For speed higher than 35 knots, in general,
propulsion systems based on flush inlet
90 waterjets, up to now are able to grant
No WEDGE
higher overall efficiencies, than propeller
Design Angle WEDGE
various alternatives. The typical transom
80
stern of the deep-V offers, in addition, very
easy fitting of the waterjet nozzles. At low
70 speeds (below 25 knots for our case),
Des. wedge - 2°
instead, the efficiency of waterjets systems
passes under the propeller one and
RT/Disp
2.3 Seakeeping
The design activity of a fast ferry MDV monohulls has been conceived reserving a paramount importance to the
seakeeping operability which is one of the main characteristic of distinction of a commercial fast marine vehicle.
A number of operability criteria, nowadays, exists to define the seakeeping quality of a ship, which, in general, derive
from research made in the navies world. Together with the requested operability performance of the ship, one or more
“mission” profiles and the external environment reference conditions are, usually, given to the designer, already in the
early stages of the project.
Besides the common operability criteria which involve the ship as a system (i.e. hull damage, deck equipment damage,
systems-structures damage, propulsion plant and system efficiency), there are others which are connected specifically to
the mission profile and regard for instance ship’s payloads (helicopter/aircraft lan-ding, cargo shifting...) and
personnel/passengers (comfort, motion sickness, fatigue, task proficiency and safety).
A comprehensive seakeeping performance criteria is given in reference7, 8. Example in the field of fast passenger
transportation is motion sickness incidence (MSI).
IMDEX ’97 International Maritime Defence Exhibition & Conference, Greenwich-London, October 1997
This subject was first studied by O’Hanlon & MacCauley9, which statistically related the motion sickness incidence of a
group of non-acclimatized people to the amplitude of a regular vertical sinusoidal oscillation of a given frequency and
the exposure time. These results combined with more recent requirements of ISO Standards10 in the manner explained in
reference7, 8, brings to the definition of some curves that superimposed to the energy spectra of the vertical acceleration,
limit the punctual value of each frequency component of the vertical acceleration spectra at a given ship’s point
(example in figure f).
0.8 Since only the heave, pitch and roll motions are
SS3 (Hs=1m Tm=6.5s)
responsible of the vertical acceleration at a point of the
0.7 SS4 (Hs=2m Tm=6.5s)
SS5 (Hs=3m Tm=7.5s) ship, the peculiar high damping characteristics of the deep-
Pitch Angle RMS [deg]
1E-1
tested in model scale with irregular waves. Different bow
forms, chine profiles and stern configurations were tested.
Being the operational area of these fast ferries most of the
1E-2
time restricted and not typically open, Jonswap spectrum
was preferred to define the various sea state conditions.
The present achieved results are presented in figure f,
MSI = 1%
1E-3 MSI = 5%
where the energy spectra of the vertical accelerations at
MSI = 10%
LCG in head sea is superimposed on the MSI curves for
MSI = 20%
Hs=3m V=35 knots
sea state 4 (Hs=2 m and Tm=6.5 s) and sea state 5 (Hs=2
Hs=2m V=35 knots
1E-4 m and Tm=7.5 s), for the “Superseacat” fast ferry; the
0.1 1.0
considered exposure time is 3 hours, which is thought to
Encounter Frequency (third Octave Band Center) [Hz]
represent the typical voyage length of a fast ferry of this
Figure F - MDV1200LL: Seasickness analysis at LCG, head
kind.
sea SS4 and SS5.
Excellent threshold values of MSI=1% and MSI=5% (i.e.
1% and 5% of unused people is probable to be sick after a 3 hours voyage in sea states 4 and 5) for considered sea states
conditions SS4 (Hs=2m Tm=6.5s) and SS5 (Hs=3m Tm=7.5s) are accomplished.
At present a deeper investigation on the influence of a systematic parametric variation on seakeeping and resistance
performances is conducting by use of different computer codes and will be finalized with seakeeping in irregular waves
coming from different direction and resistance tests on the two most promising hulls. This research project should lead
to the definition of the medium-small deep-V hull of the next generation.
IMDEX ’97 International Maritime Defence Exhibition & Conference, Greenwich-London, October 1997
3. Conclusions
Within the yearly experience of Fincantieri Naval Division in designing and building fast naval vessel, and
unconventional vessels research projects (SES, Catamarans, and SWATH), this paper have presented, on the whole, the
recent hydrodynamic design activity which has brought to the MDV series of Deep-V monohulls fast ferries. The
acquired experience in the field of hard chine fast craft can be started with the contruction of “Destriero” (1982).
Main concepts in the choice of appropriate hull forms (derived by the deep-V hulls) have been analyzed for application
to displacement / high speed semiplanning vessels and can be summarized in the following topics:
• triangular midship section with chine in way of the waterline and high deadrise angles (25÷30 degree);
• the main frame section remains as much as possible triangular in the almost cylindrical after-body for more than 50%
of the ship length;
• bow convex or mixed (convex-concave) lines together with a certain height of the chine on the waterline at bow to
avoid probability of slamming and green water or spray on the deck;
• Length displacement ratio as high as possible to reduce wave resistance;
• Proper LCB positioning in relation to LCG location, to obtain favorable initial trims.
The simplicity of construction which derive by the adoption of hard chines hulls respect to RB ones and the exceptional
intact and damaged stability properties are point of success of these family of hulls.
Other advantages and design aspects in terms of resistance, seakeeping and manoeuvrability have been analyzed.
Still water resistance of MDV hulls result slightly lower for high Froude numbers, though higher for slow speeds and
make these vessels convenient over the RB for high speed centered operating profiles. Indications about the
effectiveness of a stern wedge to reduce wave resistance on MDV hulls has been given, resulting in a total effective
power reduction of more than 5%.
Nevertheless, the added resistance in rough sea for the MDV hulls is exceptionally lower than a corresponding RB one.
The sea trials in rough seas confirmed the towing tank predicted values of 1.5 knots involuntary speed loss for the 88m
long fast ferry, in sea state 5 (3m significant wave height). This value is estimated to range around half the
corresponding RB one.
Seakeeping superior characteristics of MDV hulls were also presented and can be summarized as follows:
• higher roll damping of the bare hull (due to the vortex shed by the immersed chines) than a reference RB hull;
• low pitch and heave responses due to high CWL coefficients and low CPV coefficients typical of deep-V hulls;
• the first two statements resulting in low vertical accelerations along ship which can grant for the 88m fast ferry
motion sickness incidence less than 1% in sea state 4 (Hs=2m) and less than 5% in sea state 5 (Hs=3m), head sea.
Coursekeeping ability of the vessels derive from both the combination of a sufficiently stable hull and an adequate
integrated control system of stabilizer fins and waterjets (and other control surfaces) to grant the best synergetic yaw
motion control. Some results of PMM tests made on a MDV hull have been presented together with the device adopted
to grant the dynamic course stability of the hull.
Manoeuvring characteristics at high speeds depends very much on the propulsion arrangement installed and can give
exceptional performances in the best cases.
Restricted water manoeuvrability is excellent and assures satisfactory ability to combat strong winds, due to the
combined actions of waterjets’ directional and reversible thrust and bow thrusters.
The research activity on MDV hulls is still pursued. At present, in fact, a deeper investigation on optimum hull forms,
through a systematic parametric variation, is conducting, using different computer codes involving seakeeping and
resistance performance, and will be finalized with towing tank tests in irregular sea from various direction. This research
project should lead to the definition of the medium-small deep-V hull of the next generation.
IMDEX ’97 International Maritime Defence Exhibition & Conference, Greenwich-London, October 1997
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