Re: Bulbous Bow

From: Russ
Location: Las Vegas
email: COGIT8R@aol.com
Remote Name: 207.200.116.137
Date: 01.24.07
Time: 04:55:01 PM

Comments

The primary function of a bulbous bow is to increase a ship's efficiency. An estimated 66 to 75 percent of the resistance a ship must overcome in order to move is due to friction. The remaining 25 to 33 percent of the resistance is due to wave action on the bow. The bulbous bow generates its own counter wave that reduces or eliminates wave resistance. By reducing the total resistance to ship movement, the net effect is to increase fuel economy by 18 - 20 percent. There is an beneficial affect on speed (a boat with a bulbous bow will travel faster than the same boat with the same horsepower engine but without the bulbous bow) but the primary function of the bulbous bow is increased fuel efficiency and not increased speed. The early mathematical formulations regarding a bulbous bow can be traced back to W. C. S. Wigley, a British naval engineer, in 1934. In 1963, Professor Takao Inui published some initial model test data on the effectiveness of a bulbous bow. Within three years of his results being published, an estimated 125 vessels world-wide had been fitted with a bulbous bow.