Analysis of Effect of Bulbous Bow Shape to Ship Resistance in Catamaran Boat

Ship resistance is one of the main factors affecting the design of a ship. Catamaran boat is a ship with small wet surface area that able to reduce drag and improve ship power. Generally, a bulbous bow is implemented to reduce wave resistance because the bulbous shape is believed to attenuate the bow wave system. Additionally, the bulbous bow also tends to reduce viscous resistance. When the flow around the body is smooth, the total ship resistance can be reduced significantly if the optimum bulbous bow is obtained. In this study, the main purpose is to get the bulbous bow shape in catamaran boat which produces the smallest ship resistance by using computational fluid dynamic (CFD). Generating the variation of the bulbous bow shapes apply the one-to-one correspondence of the cross section parameter (ABT) and lateral parameter (ABL). The result of investigation shows that application of bulbous bow on catamaran boat can reduce about 11-13% of total resistance of ship.