Optimal design method of bulbous bow for fishing vessels

Although widely used, the design of the bulbous bow for ships has been difficult due to the complex interference between the wave system generated by the bulb and the wave system of the ship hull. Until now, a bulbous bow has been often designed using Kracht charts, which were established based on model test data, but these charts apply only to ships with a block coefficient CB = 0.56-0.82, Froude number Fn = 0.20-0.40, and the obtained bulb sizes are only close to optimal. This paper presents a new method for the optimal design of bulbous bow, starting from the design of an initial bulb using Kracht charts for ships with any block coefficient or Froude number, then resizing this initial bulb to define the optimal bulb sizes based on a multi-objective function of the required power reduction, and a combined solution of Computation Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis and surrogate models. This study was applied to a fishing vessel FAO 75, which has been model tested and used to design steel fishing vessels in Vietnam recently. The obtained quantitative results showed the same trend as the theory and practice, with a reduction of the ship’s required power by about 14%.