Abstract
A method is presented to obtain a ship hull form with minimum wave resistance at design Froude number by an optimization technique in conjuction with Rankine source method for evaluating steady wave resistance. In the present method, ship hull form with a protruded bow is expressed by simple mathematical functions such as polynomial function whose coefficients are the design parameter in the optimization technique. The simple mathematical expressions of the hull can reduce the number of the design parameter with keeping the fairness of the lines. Consequently, an optimized hull form can be obtained within the short computation time even if the Rankine source method is applied for evaluating the wave resistance. Improved hull froms are introduced of modified Wigley hull and Series 60 (C_b=0.6) by means of the present method. It is shown that a protruded bow is effective for reduction of the wave resistance and the present method is useful for obtaining a course of the hull form improvement.
