Research on bulbous bow ships¹

Subtitle: Part I.B. The behaviour of a fast cargo liner with a conventional and with a bulbous bow in a seaway

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Wahab, R.

Note: [1] Communication of the Netherlands’ Research Centre T.N.O. for Shipbuilding and Navigation.

Abstract: The research reported in this paper has been carried out to investigate the effect of a large bulbous bow on the behaviour of a 500 ft fast cargo liner in a seaway. The basic shape of the investigated bulb was a sphere with a radius of 2 per cent. of the ship’s length. The centre of the sphere was located on the fore perpendicular, and the lowest point on the base-line. The ship and the sphere were connected in such a way that the original hull form was maintained as much as possible. A model of this ship was tested in regular and long-crested irregular head seas. The effects of the bulbous bow on pitch and heave motions, relative bow motion, resistance increase, vertical bending moments, shipping of green seas and occurrence of slamming were investigated.

DOI: 10.3233/ISP-1966-1314202

Journal: International Shipbuilding Progress, vol. 13, no. 142, pp. 181-193, 1966