A study of hydrodynamics of planing flat catamaran and prismatic hulls

A numerical investigation of hydrodynamic force and pressure distribution for planing hull has been carried out. The problem is solved by using a pressure patch distribution method. The method is based on potential flow theory and with a linearised free surface boundary condition. In some of the previous studies, it was found that the inversed pressure distribution on the planing hull will be oscillating, i.e., a numerical instability problem occurred. In the present study, a robust numerical approach was adopted to calculate the elementary solution of a pressure patch moving on the free surface. The numerical approach is applied to flat plate, flat plate catamaran and prismatic planing hulls. No numerical instability has been found for the predicted pressure distribution on the planing hulls. The predicted results are compared with those of other published numerical calculations and model tests, a fairly good agreement has been found.