Bow shape design for river-sea vessels with increased seakeeping performance

Object and purpose of research. The purpose of this study was to develop a bow shape with increased block coefficient for river-sea vessels so as to improve their seakeeping at high sea states. Subject matter and methods. This paper qualitatively analyses the physics of wave effects upon a moving ship, ranking the contribution of specific factors and solving the task of improving the seakeeping performance through optimization of hull lines. Main results. The study highlighted the peculiarities of intense wave effects upon ship bow and suggested the hull lines offering a good seakeeping performance for a hull with high block coefficient. Seakeeping tests of initial and modified hull models at Krylov State Research Centre Seakeeping Basin have confirmed the theoretical results. Conclusion. The study outlined one of the ways to improve seakeeping performance of river-sea ships with increased block coefficient at high sea states.