OPERATION OF A SWIMMING CATAMARAN AND NATURE'S CHALLENGE,

Abstract

High performance of fast swimming sea animals challenges naval designers to provide undulating flexible hulls instead of conventional rigid ships driven by propellers. Nature's method of self-locomotion assures silence as well as economy provided the barrier of complete flexibility is surmounted by modern technology in a practical manner. Nature's challenge, as shown by the swimming vehicle, is a 'structural approach' to noise reduction by eliminating the propeller. Experiments with the swimming vehicle show an improvement in boundary-layer conditions, as found in nature, by wiping away the turbulent body wake. Tests of the swimming catamaran were documented with respect to speed and other parameters, but the slow speeds attained due to low power are not significant nor inherent in the swimming method. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 15, 1967
Accession Number
AD0656035

Entities

People

  • Glenn H. Bowlus

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Boundaries
  • Boundary Layer
  • Catamarans
  • Layers
  • Locomotion
  • Noise
  • Noise Reduction
  • Propellers
  • Resilience
  • Ships
  • Swimming
  • Vehicles
  • Watercraft

Readers

  • Marine Hydrodynamics
  • Systems Analysis and Design
  • Underwater engineering and Marine Technology.