Characteristics of a series of high speed hard chine planing hulls - part II: performance in waves

Abstract

An experimental investigation into the performance of high speed hard chine planing hulls in irregular waves has been conducted. A new series of models representative of current design practice was developed and tested experimentally. Measurements of the rigid body motions and accelerations were made at three speeds in order to assess the influence of fundamental design parameters on the seakeeping performance of the hulls and human factors performance of the crew, with an aim to provide designers with useful data. Response data, such as heave and pitch motions and accelerations, are presented as probability distributions due to the non-linear nature of high speed craft motions. Additionally statistical parameters for the experimental configurations tested are provided and the most relevant measures for crew performance discussed. Furthermore, an example of the use of these statistical parameters to evaluate the vibration dose value of the crew onboard a full scale high speed planingcraft is given. It is confirmed that at high speed craft motion leads to recommended maximum values of vibration dose value being exceeded after only short durations. In practice, therefore, mitigating strategies need to be developed and/or employed to reduce crew exposure to excessive whole body vibratio