SMALL WATERPLANE AREA TWIN HULL

(SWATH)

AMIRUL ASYRAF
MOHAMMAD FIRDAUS AZMI
MOHD FADZIL AZAMI
AHMAD TAUFIQ CHE DAUD
ABD RAZAK HASAN
MUHAMMAD FIRDAUS MD AMIN

LECTURER : IR PAUZI ABD GHANI

(1) INTRODUCTION
Features of the SWATH

Advantages

Disadvantages

Examples of SWATH
 Features
• S.W.A.T.H. stand for Small Waterplane Area of Twin Hull.

• The SWATH vessel is a relatively recent development in ship

design.

• The general configurations of a SWATH vessel geometrically is that

two fully and two partially submerged hulls connected by struts.

• These configurations offer the streamlined vertical columns

(struts) can pierce the water surface and support a cross-structure.
Profile figure
Section Area of SWATH
 Advantages
• Offer good ride quality exceeding compared
with a monohull vessel of equivalent
displacement under rough condition.

• Better seakeeping performance of the SWATH

vessel concept is much associated with its
small waterplane conceptual.
 Advantages of the SWATH ships inherently
compared with the equivalent monohull vessel can
be taken as follow :

• Less speed loss in rough seas than conventional

vessels because of minimal pitching motions.

• Minimizing a drag as well as keeping the resistance

down.

• Eliminate seasickness, and give the vessel mobility

comparable to mono-hulls.
 Disadvantages

• An increase in propulsion power due to its

greater wetted surface area which causes an
increase of frictional drag.

• Relatively larger turning diameter in relation

to length in a high speed SWATH ship.
EXAMPLE OF SWATH
EXAMPLE OF SWATH
EXAMPLE OF SWATH
(SEA SHADOW)
(2) HULL FORM
• a twin-hull ship design minimizes hull volume in the
surface area of the sea
• Minimizing hull volume vessel will increase stablility,
even in high seas and at high speeds.
• twin-hull design provides large, broad decks and a
stable platform
• The bulk of the displacement necessary to keep the
ship afloat is located beneath the waves, where it is
less affected by wave action, as wave excitation
drops exponentially with depth.
 Advantages of SWATH Hull Form

• able to deliver big-ship platform steadiness

and ride quality in a smaller vessel

• able to sustain a high proportion of its normal

cruising speed in rough head seas.
Advantage in term of buoyancy of SWATH:
• Hullform is provided by 2 submarine hulls
connected to the upper platform by twin
narrow struts from each of the submarine
hulls.
• biggest advantage comes in a beam sea
because the technology significantly reduces
the vessel's vertical movement & totally
eliminates the quick jarring movements
 Disadvantages of SWATH Hull Form

• more expensive than conventional catamarans

• Require complex control system

• Deeper draft than conventional hullforms

• Higher maintenance requirement

 Resistance
• To reduce some of that resistance (the part
that generates waves), as much displacement
volume as possible is moved to the lower hull
and the waterline cross-section is narrowed
sharply, creating the distinctive pair of bulbous
hulls below the waterline and the narrow
struts supporting the upper hull.
• means that the ship's floatation runs mostly
under the waves, like a submarine (the
smooth ride of a sub was the inspiration for
the design)
• result is that a fairly small ship can run steadily
in rough seas
 Typical SWATH’s Components

•  There are two other components to the hull:

1) The Struts
2) The haunches 

The haunches, which blend into the decks and

bridge, are connected to each submerged hull
by one or two relatively thin vertical members,
called struts.
• The longitudinal cross-section of each strut
roughly half the width of the submerged hull,
and streamlined to decrease wave-making
resistance

• ship motions are caused by the waves on the

ocean surface which frequency and amplitude
determines the effect on slowing and rocking
the hull as it moves through the water
• you can go below these waves,to achieve a
smooth ride as you might expect with a
submarine

• But wave effect, which creates as much or

more drag as frictional (pipe) resistance
cannot be eliminated totally, since a degree of
reserve buoyancy is needed
• The wave forces can be lowered if the volume
and water-plane area at the design waterline
is kept to a minimum

• So a very careful calculating strut size it is

possible for the net vertical wave force on the
struts and hulls to be near zero over a chosen
range of wave frequencies
TYPICAL SUBMERGED HULL
AND STRUT SECTIONS
• The design compromise, is to achieve similar payload
carrying capacity with reduced motions, yet still
maintain speed

• It will reducing seasickness, hence enhancing crew

performance and comfort levels.

• thinner struts decrease wave making resistance, but

also increase the hull’s wetted area, which results in
increased frictional resistance.
• So the research and development effort on
SWATH vessels has focused on the correlation
water plane area and sea-keeping
performance.

• Sufficient wave clearance to the underside of

the deck structure is also important to allow
any  SWATH ship to ride above surface waves
that are typical of the area the vessel will be
operated.
pajey
(4) SEAKINDLINESS
of SWATH
• Excellent seakindliness
• No speed drop 
• Excellent sea keeping performance
• Seakeeping assessed by few characteristics
using Model test
 Seakeeping for SWATH

Ship hull form displacement

load Ship
model

Ship bow Stern

Ship motion

waves

Heave Pitch roll

1) Load
• Slight load due to small buoyancy

2) Ship Model
• Low speed applications:
short length hull is necessary to provide very
long pitch natural period, which decreases
vessel's pitch motions
3) Ship Motion
• Smaller metacentric height of SWATH:
longer roll & pitch natural periods
• heave and pitch characterized by a relatively
small added mass and very small waves
making damping
• for roll, both added mass and damping are
substantially greater than that observed for
the monohull
Heaving
• No slamming for fast ship running in ocean waves
• Lower than mono-hull & trimaran

Pitch
• Feature with less restoring moment in pitch motion
• Lower than mono-hull and trimaran
• At rough sea, ship pitching is quite a problem due to flat hull in the
water
• for low speed applications, short length is necessary to provide
very long pitch natural period, which decreases vessel's pitch
motions
 
Roll
• High rolling caused by waves but SWATH will maintain its position.
Roll, pitch & heave
4) Ship hullform

• Deep propeller position:

-Excellent flow condition into propellers
-Greatly reduce propulsion levels

• hulls are bulbous:

a craft with reduced waterplane area still
requires a displacement volume.
• single strut per hull:
-reduced drag by elimination of wave
interference effects between the struts
-give better performance in extreme seas.

• Smaller area waterplane:

the control of vertical motion is important
while running in waves
5) Waves
• Exciting waves is extremely low compared
with monohull
• It is also called as “wave excitationless ship”

6) Displacement
7) Ship Bow
8) Stern
(5) PROPULSION SYSTEM
 Propulsion of SWATH
• Due to reduced waterplane area, SWATH
ships are quite restricted to fit big and
complex machinery systems.

• So, their transom stern provides more space

for water jets which are favoured propulsion
system for high speed crafts.
 Water Jet

A – water inlet
B- impeller as pumping unit
C- stator increases the pressure or head of flow
D- pressure flow discharged at nozzle
E- astern deflector as steering unit
• So far, most common propulsion machinery in
SWATH is ;-

Diesel engines and gas turbines

with

fixed or controllable pitch propellers as

propulsion devices.
Controllable Pitch Propeller
Mechanical Transmission
BEVEL GEAR
EXAMPLE OF SOLAR SWATH
EXAMPLE OF SWATH
EXAMPLE OF SWATH
EXAMPLE OF SWATH
EXAMPLE OF SWATH (NAVY)
(6) PRIME
MOVERS
Gas Turbines
Diesel Engines
Electric Motors
 GAS TURBINES
Advantages :
• Best power to weight ratio
• Maximum acceleration and top spedds
• Easily cope with rapid load changes
• Increase high operational availability

Disadvantages :
• Relatively high specific fuel consumption
(>0.330kg/kw)
 DIESEL ENGINES
Advantages :
• Much more efficient over a much wider
range of loads ( 0.220kg/kW)
• Readily available in proven
• Supportible and reliable design
• High operational availability
Disadvantages:
• Combustion air and exhaust gases have
to be ducted over great distances from
the outside to the prime movers.
• Highly maintenance
• Occupying space (from midship nearly to
stern)
• High manning requirement
• Lower responsiveness to load
changes
• Limitation on the shock mountings
due to alignment requirements
between shaft, gearbox and the
engines.
 ELECTRIC MOTORS
Advantages :
• Can be located anywhere
• Would always run very close to their
design load conditions, which will
significantly increase the overall efficiency
• Increase the operational availability
• Crew reduction
• Very quiet (no noise or vibrations will
be transmitted from the prime
mover or the gearbox to the
propeller.

• Offers the potential for a future

upgrade to fuel cells.
External Electric Drive
External Electric Drive
Augmented Thrust Waterjet
Propulsor
THANK YOU…