Revisiting artificial air cavity concept for high speed craft

Artificial air cavity ship concept has received some interest due to its potential on viscous resistance reduction for high speed craft. Although a small number of ships were designed and built by using this concept, further research on resistance components is required to improve the understanding of artificial air cavity forms. A method based on tank testing with wave pattern measurements to identify resistance components was adopted in the current work. Resistance tests were conducted with two forms; first of which was conventional prismatic planing hull form with a deadrise angle of 10degrees, and second one was an alternative form with an artificially cavity which was tested both without any air injection, and with two different air injection rates. Total resistance, running trim, sinkage, supply airflow to artificial cavity, air pressure in the cavity and wave pattern generated by the hulls were measured. Frictional resistance was calculated from wetted surface area and compared with resistance component obtained by subtracting wave pattern resistance from the total resistance. Wave pattern spectrums with air cavity configurations were compared across the speed range. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.