Study on different concepts for design of a coastal research vessel

Abstract

The design of any vessel is a series of compromises which trade off one property for another. Catamarans are particularly appropriate in the size range from 45 to 170 feet, where they offer many of the advantages of considerably longer conventional vessels in a shorter, wider, shallower draft, fuel efficient package. Designing and using modern catamarans is lot like designing and using aircraft where strength/weight considerations are crucial. Weight control is essential for good and safe performance offshore. Blind application of monohull design ideas has lead to the creation of a number of needlessly heavy (and thus expensive) catamarans with poor sea keeping. Fuel load takes the place of science cargo as the primary weight to be hauled, which in turn requires larger engines to achieve the design speed and range, which requires more fuel and so on. The design spiral then diverges from well-proven wholesome, catamaran design practice. This paper signifies the importance of catamaran hull form benefits as a research vessel and the reasons for selecting this hull form. Study is also done on the spacing between the two hulls with symmetrical demihull and asymmetrical demihull. Resistance, working deck space, operating cost options are the primary factors in determining catamaran hull form as the most efficient out of the comparison between monohull and catamaran. This paper signifies the effect of bulbous bow [9] in reducing the resistance components and increasing the volume of displacement for a given set of constraints.