The design presentation of ship model resistance data

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Telfer, E.V.

Abstract: The paper starts by commenting on the early use of ship model experiments and the general development of methods of storing the information derived from such experiments. B.J. Tideman is acknowledged as being in 1878 the pioneer in the non-dimensional presentation of model resistance data. He was followed by R.E. Froude in 1888 whose work has long and rightly dominated the subject. Departures from the classic work of Froude due to D.W. Taylor and others have probably greatly disturbed the steady assimilation of the practical design lessons of the model experiment. Other hybrid presentations have received official backing and have been the vehicles of much valuable experiment work. Modern developments in presentation endeavour to abstract the maximum amount of design information from available data. Examples are given which show the defects of earlier presentations in portraying the true lessons of experiments. A presentation suggested by the author many years ago and now again offered, is contrasted with the Froude and B.S.R.A. presentations. Its convenience is illustrated by application to the B.S.R.A. and Moor’s data. Some consideration is given to Moor’s treatment of the Mumford index idea. The Washington Tank series 60 data are converted to the presentation; and convenient design tabulations are prepared which can be applied to the powering of most ordinary merchant forms. The presentation is suggested as the best for the statistical treatment of model data now made possible by the electronic computer. Such work as that recently published by Doust before this Institution is already in terms of the system proposed and it is suggested that any such analysis would be impossible using the Froude or B.S.R.A. presentations. This possibility of rapid development by computer analysis should prove the necessary impetus – hitherto lacking – in the selection of one single and satisfactory system of ship resistance data presentation for design purposes.

DOI: 10.3233/ISP-1963-1010603

Journal: International Shipbuilding Progress, vol. 10, no. 106, pp. 215-232, 1963