Based on the FVM (finite volume method) numerical method, the flow field around the stepped planing hull in Taunton series was simulated. According to the general procedure of numerical uncertainty analysis, the numerical uncertainty in the high-speed flow field simulation of the stepped planing hull was discussed. Combined with the wave-making characteristics of the hull, the generation mechanism, shape evolution of air cavity, and the pressure distribution characteristics under the influence of the cavity, focuses on the variation of the flow around the stepped planing when the hull is in the triangle planing stage. Numerical results suggest that, as the air cavity enlarges, the cover rate of the air cavity can rise up to 77.8% of the whole wetted surface of the planing hull bottom. While, in the triangle planing stage, there is additional wetting at the aft bilge, which leads to the decrease of the air cavity rate and the increase of the wetted area. At the same time, the pressure distribution concentrates to the center of gravity.

When operated under large water immersion, surface piercing propellers are prone to be in heavy load conditions. To improve the hydrodynamic performance of the surface piercing propellers, engineers usually artificially ventilate the blades by equipping a vent pipe in front of the propeller disc. In this paper, the influence of artificial ventilation on the hydrodynamic performance of surface piercing propellers under full immersion conditions was investigated using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method. The numerical results suggest that the effect of artificial ventilation on the pressure distribution on the blades decreases along the radial direction. And at low advancing speed, the thrust, torque as well as the efficiency of the propeller are smaller than those without ventilation. However, with the increase of the advancing speed, the efficiency of the propeller rapidly increases and can be greater than the without-ventilation case. The numerical results demonstrates the effectiveness of the artificial ventilation approach for improving the hydrodynamic performance of the surface piercing propellers for high speed planning crafts.

Under the condition of large water immersion, surface-piercing propellers are inclined to be heavy loaded. In order to improve the hydrodynamic performance of the surface-piercing propeller, the installation of a vent pipe in front of a propeller disc is more widely used in the propulsion device of high speed planning crafts. Based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method, this paper studied the influence of diverse vent pipe diameters on hydrodynamic performance of the surface-piercing propeller under full water immersion conditions. The numerical results show that, with the increase of vent pipe diameters, the thrust and torque of the surface-piercing propeller decrease after ventilation, and the efficiency of the propeller increases rapidly; the low pressure area near the back root of the blade becomes smaller and smaller gradually; and the peak of periodic vibration of thrust and torque can be effectively reduced. The numerical results demonstrate that the installation of artificial vent pipe effectively improves the hydrodynamic performance of surface piercing propeller in the field of high speed crafts, and the increase of artificial vent pipe diameter plays an active role in the propulsion efficiency of the surface-piercing propeller.

In this paper, the motion of partial air cushion support catamaran (PACSCAT) sailing in regular waves was firstly investigated by the experimental method. The monitored histories of heave, pitch, midship acceleration, and air cushion pressure in towing tests are performed to analyze the influence of air cushion on the periodicity feature of hull body motion. Subsequently, using the finite volume method (FVM)-based CFD software Star-ccm, numerical simulations are carried out for the PACSCAT model with a simplification of the air cushion system. The detailed flow information of wave evolution, pressure, and velocity distribution is investigated. The calculated oscillation characteristics of different motion parameters are compared with those from experiment and show good agreement. The numerical method also has good capacity in the prediction of amplitude response of heave and midship acceleration; however, large error is found when calculating resistance and amplitude response of pitch.