J. Marine Sci. Appl.

(2012) 11: 286-294

DOI: 10.1007/s11804-012-1134-1

Computational Fluid Dynamics Based

Bulbous Bow Optimization Using a Genetic Algorithm
Shahid Mahmood* and Debo Huang
Multihull Ship Technology, Key Laboratory of Fundamental Science for National Defence, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China

Abstract: Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) plays a major role in predicting the flow behavior of a ship.
With the development of fast computers and robust CFD software, CFD has become an important tool for
designers and engineers in the ship industry. In this paper, the hull form of a ship was optimized for total
resistance using CFD as a calculation tool and a genetic algorithm as an optimization tool. CFD based
optimization consists of major steps involving automatic generation of geometry based on design parameters,
automatic generation of mesh, automatic analysis of fluid flow to calculate the required objective/cost function,
and finally an optimization tool to evaluate the cost for optimization. In this paper, integration of a genetic
algorithm program, written in MATLAB, was carried out with the geometry and meshing software GAMBIT
and CFD analysis software FLUENT. Different geometries of additive bulbous bow were incorporated in the
original hull based on design parameters. These design variables were optimized to achieve a minimum cost
function of “total resistance”. Integration of a genetic algorithm with CFD tools proves to be effective for hull
form optimization.
Keywords: bulbous bow; genetic algorithm; computational fluid dynamics (CFD); total resistance
Article ID: 1671-9433(2012)03-0286-09

1 Introduction1 cost of each analysis, it is difficult to manually change the

design parameters of the ship hull form and conduct each
The design of a ship with minimum resistance in accordance analysis to obtain an optimized shape. There is a
with the desired conditions of speed and displacement is a requirement to solve this problem with a process of
major requirement from the ship design point of view. The optimization which is robust and automatic. Ship
prediction of the flow field around the hull plays a major optimization with respect to optimal shape design can be
role in the development of ship hull form. With the rapid found in research literature (Dejhalla et al., 2001, 2002;
development of computational tools in recent years, Jacquin et al., 2002).
computational fluid dynamics has gained importance
especially in the early stages of ship design. Computational In almost all ship hull form optimization, based on CFD, the
fluid dynamics (CFD) has been used extensively to analyze following are the common major components:
the flow field around the hull, and successful calculations of • Determining the objective function to minimize along
ship resistance can be found in research literature (Chen et with design variables and constraints which influence this
al., 2002; Zhang et al., 2006; Özdemir et al., 2007; Fonfach objective function.
and Soares, 2010; Shahid and Huang, 2011). • Automatic generation of geometry based on the design
criteria/variables and then automatically generating the flow
In recent years ship optimization has gained great interest domain mesh as the shape evolves.
for the purpose of minimizing the drag of a ship for fuel
• Calculation of the objective function using a high
efficiency which results in minimizing the running cost. To
performance CFD code.
obtain a ship with low resistance, its hull form has to be
• The requirement of an optimization tool/algorithm to
optimized. The optimization of hull form for drag reduction
evaluate the objective function.
requires repetitive analysis of the flow field around the hull
with the variation of different hull design parameters.
In this paper, minimizing total resistance has been selected
Conducting these analyses on a towing tank is rather
as a single objective function; optimization is carried out for
difficult due to the cost and time involved in performing
a single speed of Fr=0.34. GAMBIT software is used to
these tests.
generate the geometry and mesh. FLUENT CFD software is
used to solve the flow field and calculate the total resistance
Although CFD has the advantage of reducing the time and
of the ship. For optimization, a genetic algorithm is applied
to evaluate the objective function. To minimize the total
Received date: 2011-07-07. resistance, an additive bulbous bow has been integrated to
*Corresponding author Email: [email protected] the series 60 hull (0.6).
© Harbin Engineering University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012
Journalof Marine Science and Application (2012) 11: 286-294 287

2 Bulbous bow design completely defined in terms of the objective function and
the methods to minimize it. For the research work presented
Nowadays bulbous bows are an integrated part of many ship in this paper, the objective/cost function is to minimize the
designs. The hydrodynamic effect of the bulbous bow is total resistance of a ship with the addition of a bulbous bow
based on the change of flow distribution around the bow, to the parent hull.
creating waves that interfere with the waves created by the
hull, while also improving the flow around the bow. A
properly designed bulb affects nearly all the hydrodynamic
properties of the ship.

According to Kracht (1978), bulb types can be differentiated

by basic three types of bulb sections that extend beyond the
forward perpendicular (FP).
• Delta (∆)–type: It has a drop-shaped sectional area with
the centroid of the bulb volume concentrated in the lower
Fig. 1 Optimization methodology
half; Taylor and pear-shaped bulbs belong in this category.
• O-type: It has an oval-shaped sectional area with the
In the following sections each process of the methodology is
centroid of the bulb volume concentrated in the middle;
briefly described.
circular, cylindrical, elliptical, and lens-shaped bulbs fall in
this category.
3.1 Optimization program (genetic algorithm)
• Nabla (∇ )–type: It also has a drop-shaped sectional area
For an optimization process it is important to have an
but with the centroid of the bulb volume concentrated in the optimization tool which evaluates the cost function for hull
upper half part. improvement and provides input parameters for the next
improved hull. The genetic algorithm (GA) is an
A bulbous bow can be categorized as an additive and optimization and search technique based on the principles of
implicit bulb. For an additive bulbous bow, the displacement genetics and natural selection. A GA allows a population
volume of the ship is increased by the effective total bulb composed of many individuals to evolve under specified
volume, and the sectional area curve of the original ship selection rules to a state that maximizes the fitness (i.e.
remains unchanged. For an implicit bulb, the effective minimizes the cost function). The GA was developed by
volume of the bulb is part of the displacement volume of the Holland in 1975.
main hull; the sectional area curve of the original ship is
changed. The genetic algorithm program for hull form optimization is
written in MATLAB; this program works as a main program
3 Optimization methodology which is able to communicate among all the processes of the
The complete optimization process should be able to work optimization. At the start of the program the cost/objective
automatically without any interference from a user. The function and the optimization variables along with their
optimization process should be able to solve the following constraints as per requirement of the optimization are
major components: defined. The general working of the genetic algorithm is
described below.
• Geometry and mesh generation based on the design
constraints defined for the shape evolution.
The GA starts with the group of the initial population of
• Computational Fluid Dynamics software for calculating
chromosomes generated randomly based on the pre-defined
the required objective function.
constraints. Each chromosome is evaluated for its fitness.
• An optimization program to communicate among all
The chromosomes with high fitness are selected to continue
components.
for the mating based on the selection rate (i.e. the number of
Solutions to above mentioned components are as follows:
chromosomes to be kept in each generation). Chromosomes
• Creation of a GAMBIT journal file to automate the
are selected from the mating pool of high fitness
process of geometry and mesh creation.
chromosomes to produce new offspring to replace the low
• Creation of a FLUENT journal file to automatically fitness ones. Mutation is carried out in order to prevent the
calculate the objective function. algorithm from converging to a local solution. After the
• Creation of a genetic algorithm-based optimization mutation, the cost associated with the chromosomes is
program written in MATLAB. calculated. At the completion of each generation,
improvement in the fitness of each chromosome is obtained.
A methodology defining the complete process of This process will be continued till the sufficient number of
optimization is presented in Fig. 1. Before starting the generations for best solution is achieved. A flow chart
optimization process the problem to be solved should be describing the working of the GA for this study has been
288 Shahid Mahmood, et al. Computational Fluid Dynamics Based Bulbous Bow Optimization Using a Genetic Algorithm

shown in Fig. 2. commands to perform the CFD analysis for the required
mesh file. The journal file contains both TUI and GUI
commands. At the end of CFD analysis the journal file is
able to store total resistance results in a text file to be
evaluated by the optimization program.

3.6 CFD analysis (FLUENT software)

To perform CFD analysis for calculating the objective
function (i.e. total resistance) of each mesh file generated
from the GAMBIT journal file, FLUENT software is used.
Each time the analysis is required, the optimization program
runs the FLUENT software with an input file as the
FLUENT journal file. All CFD analyses are run with parallel
FLUENT software with four parallel processes. The detailed
CFD analysis parameters for this paper are described in the
later sections.

4 Series 60 parent hull

Before carrying out the optimization process, CFD
calculations are performed for the parent hull. The particulars
of a series 60 model ship, used for both experimental and
computational tests, are presented in Table 1.

Fig. 2 Flow chart of a genetic algorithm Table 1 Major characteristics of series 60 hull
Characteristics Value
Length between perpendiculars Lpp/m 7.0
3.2 GAMBIT variable file
Breadth B/m 0.933 3
The GAMBIT variable file stores all those variables which Draft T/m 0.373 3
are required for the geometrical changes to optimize the hull Displacement ∇ /m3 1.462
form. The names of the variables in the file are defined with Wetter surface area S/m2 8.349 1
the $ sign. Variable values are stored by the input from the Block coefficient Cb 0.6
genetic algorithm program and these values serve as input to
the GAMBIT journal file. 4.1 Computational domain and mesh generation
GAMBIT software is used for the creation of geometry and
3.3 GAMBIT journal file the generation of a grid for the flow domain. Due to the
The GAMBIT journal file is a text file that contains a set of symmetry of the hull, half of the domain is modeled for flow
GAMBIT program commands which are executed one by calculations. The flow domain volume is divided in such a
one until the end of file. The journal file for optimization way to have hexahedral cells for the whole computational
contains all the required steps/commands from generating domain. The Cartesian coordinate system is set up with the
the desired geometry to the export of mesh for CFD x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis pointing towards the bow, upwards,
analysis. and portside, respectively. The length in front of the hull
(inlet boundary), behind the hull (outlet boundary), top,
3.4 Automatic geometry modeling and mesh generation bottom, and side boundaries are taken as 1.0Lpp, 3.0Lpp,
For automatic generation of the hull geometry and mesh, the 0.5Lpp, 1.0Lpp, and 1.0Lpp, respectively. ISO, symmetry, and
GAMBIT journal file should be flexible enough to cater to top view mesh for calculations are presented in Figs. 3, 4,
all geometric changes made due to the evolution of design and 5, respectively. Care has been taken to generate a mesh
variables input from the optimization process. The GAMBIT to keep turbulence y+ value within the desired limit (i.e.
journal file is run in the batch mode from the optimization 30≤y+≤300). The first node distribution based on the y+
program to execute all the commands at once. Various value is calculated by (Lin et al., 1995):
geometric and mesh generation conditions, as per the  y
y + = 0.172   Re0.9
changes in the hull in each iteration, are applied in the L
journal file in order to have the desired output mesh file for where y is the distance from ship surface to first node, L the
the next step. length of the ship, and Re the Reynolds number.

3.5 FLUENT journal file The number of hexahedral cells for the flow domain is 0.65
The FLUENT journal file contains all the executable million.
Journalof Marine Science and Application (2012) 11: 286-294 289

CFD calculations for the series 60 parent hull are carried out
for a Froude number ranging from 0.159 to 0.34. Results
obtained from FLUENT software are compared with the
ITTC cooperative experiments on a series 60 model
(Takeshi et al., 1987) and presented in Fig. 7. It can be
observed from the results that the experiment and CFD
results agree well with each other, especially in the low
Froude number range; the maximum difference in the results
is below 10 percent.
Fig. 3 ISO view of domain mesh for final calculations

Fig. 4 Symetrical view of domain mesh

Fig. 7 Comparison of total resistance for experimental and

CFD results

Fig. 5 Top view of free surface mesh 5 Series 60 optimization

4.2 CFD analysis The optimization methodology is applied to a Series 60
The commercial viscous flow software FLUENT is used for Cb=0.6 ship hull with an additive bulbous bow. The hull is
computations in this study. Since the motion of the optimized for a single speed corresponding to Fr=0.34.
free-surface is governed by gravitational and inertial forces, Generation of a hull with additive bulbous bow geometry is
gravity effects must be taken into account in boundary defined in GAMBIT software and FLUENT is used as a
conditions. Volume of fluid (VOF) formulation and the open calculation tool to solve the flow field around the hull and
channel boundary conditions available in FLUENT are obtain the total resistance. A genetic algorithm is applied for
applied to solve multiphase free-surface flow. The the optimization of the bulb design parameters.
turbulence model of SST k-ω with standard coefficients is
employed in all calculations due to its better results for free 5.1 Design of bulbous bow for optimization
surface calculations (Shahid and Huang, 2011). The inlet As described earlier, the hydrodynamic effect of a bulbous
boundary condition upstream is taken as a pressure-inlet bow depends on the flow change around bow of the hull.
with an open channel; the outlet boundary condition Geometrically, this hydrodynamic effect is a function of
downstream is taken as a pressure-outlet with an open bulb size or volume (i.e. longitudinal distribution of volume
channel. A no-slip wall boundary condition is taken on the along the length of the bulb and the form of the bulb) (Perez
top, bottom, and side boundaries and the hull surfaces. et al., 2007). The vertical distribution of bulb volume and its
Convergence of the solution is assessed by monitoring the distance to the free-surface will affect the amplitude of the
residuals of continuity, velocity, turbulence, volume fraction, wave system along the hull. The longitudinal distribution of
and drag force. The residual convergence criteria for all the bulb volume along the length will create a phase lag
residuals are taken as 1e−07. between the bulb and hull waves. The appropriate selection
of these geometric parameters can create favorable
interference of the bulb and hull waves, resulting in a
decrease in wave resistance.

Keeping the above information in view, the design

parameters are selected as L (length of bulb), Ymax
(maximum height of bulb), Ycenter (center of the bulb), Yhalf
(Mid-point of the bulb section), W (width of bulb), and α
(longitudinal profile angle).

Fig. 8 presents the profile of bulb sections with design

Fig. 6 Computational domain with boundary conditions parameters.
290 Shahid Mahmood, et al. Computational Fluid Dynamics Based Bulbous Bow Optimization Using a Genetic Algorithm

Here the cost function is the calculation of the total resistance

of the ship subject to constraints present in Table 2.
Chromosome= [Ymax, Ycenter, W, L, α ]
The following are the GA parameters adopted in this paper:
(a) No. of variables = 5
(b) Population size = 10
(c) Crossover rate = 0.6
(d) Mutation probability = 0.2
Fig. 8 Bulb types and design parameters
(e) No. of generations = 13
(f) No. of evaluations = 130
where L determines the protruding length of the bulb
forward to the FP, Ymax determines the maximum height of
5.4 Generation of hull geometry and meshing
the bulb, and Ycenter determines the shape of the section
A GAMBIT journal file is created to automatically generate
(Ycenter above Yhalf gives a nabla-type bulb section, Ycenter
the hull form and design of the bulbous bow in accordance
below Yhalf produces a delta-type bulb section, and Ycenter
with the design parameters. The original hull form of a
equal to Yhalf produces an O-type bulb section), W presents
Series 60 ship is imported in GAMBIT as an IGES file. The
the maximum width of the bulb, and α produces the
design parameters/variables for the bulb are imported from a
longitudinal profile of the bulb forward of the FP.
variable file in a vertex format. From these bulb design
variables, bulb sections and then volume is created and then
The geometry of the bulbous bow is created based on the
integrated into the parent hull.
generation of a sectional profile using conic arc creation
with three vertex parameters (start, shoulder, and end) and
For flow calculations, half of the hull is modeled due to
one shape parameter. For the shape parameter, an elliptical
symmetry. The domain volume is taken as a box shape with
shape is used for specifying the general shape of the arc. In
the flow domain around hull divided into several volumes.
order to fit the additive bulb after the FP, its basic section
Due to the complexity of the shape with the addition of a
remains constant downstream. A separate bulb volume is
new bulb, mesh for a small volume around hull has been
generated and then added into the main hull volume.
created with tetrahedral cells and the rest with hexahedral
mesh. However, care has been taken to generate a mesh to
5.2 Constraints for design parameters/variables
keep the turbulence y+ value within the desired limit. A mesh
In order to search for an optimum solution by an
file for the CFD analysis is created after applying boundary
optimization algorithm in a design space, a range of design
conditions to the flow domain; the same boundary
variables is required to be given (i.e. minimum and
conditions previously adopted for the parent hull
maximum values). The design parameters will evolve only
calculations are applied for this optimization. Domain mesh
within the specified range. Constraints applied for this
for optimization is presented in Fig. 9.
optimization work are presented below:

Table 2 Bulb design variable constraints

Variable Range
Ymax [0.85T,1.2T]
Ycenter [0.25T,0.8T]
W [0.02B,0.75B]
L [0.007Lpp,0.085Lpp]
α [−20o,20o]
Fig. 9 Domain mesh for optimization
5.3 Genetic algorithm parameters
The genetic algorithm starts with defining the objective 5.5 CFD analysis
function for optimization then chromosomes are defined as A FLUENT journal file is created to automatically run every
an array of variable values to be optimized. solution with the new design. The same FLUENT solution
parameters that are adopted for the parent hull calculations
Objective function = minimize (total resistance) are applied to this case. To save calculation time in the
Chromosome= [v1, v2,…,vn] optimization process, the residual convergence criterion for
where n is the number of variables. the optimization is kept as a default value of 1e-03; however,
Cost=ƒ (chromosomes) =ƒ (v1, v2,…,vn) final calculations of the optimized hull are carried out with
the convergence of 1e−07. The results for the total resistance
Journalof Marine Science and Application (2012) 11: 286-294 291

are stored in a text file (Fig. 10) which is read by an

optimization program.

Fig. 10 FLUENT output result

5.6 Optimization results (a) Ymax

Optimization is carried out on an Intel Core2 Quad CPU @
2.66 GHz. It almost took 24 hours to complete each
generation. The optimization methodology is applied to a
series 60 Cb=0.6 ship hull with an additive bulbous bow. The
hull is optimized for a single speed corresponding to Fr=0.34.
Fig. 11 shows the evolution history of total resistance, and
each point in Fig. 11 represents the absolute value of total
resistance obtained through optimization. Fig. 12 represents
the minimum, average, and maximum cost obtained over
several generations. It can be observed that the solution for (b) Ycenter
minimum cost converged along the generations. Evolution of
the bulbous bow design parameters along a number of
generations is presented in Fig. 13.

It is important to mention that since evaluation of cost

function (calculation of total resistance) is time consuming,
in each generation only costs of the offspring of mutated
chromosomes are evaluated. Non-mutated parents have
already been cost evaluated earlier, so they are not evaluated
again. In every new generation there are non-mutated
(c) W
parents, mutated parents, offspring, and mutated offspring; if
any identical chromosome has already been evaluated and
has an associated cost, then this cost is assigned to the new
chromosome.

(d) L

Fig. 11 Evolution history of optimization

(e) α
Fig. 13 Evolution of bulb parameters

After the completion of the optimization process, the bulbous

bow parameters are obtained for the top two optimized forms
Fig. 12 Cost trend against number of generations and are presented in Table 3. The bulbous bow sections for
292 Shahid Mahmood, et al. Computational Fluid Dynamics Based Bulbous Bow Optimization Using a Genetic Algorithm

both optimized hulls are shown in Figs. 14–17. calculations. Since the effect of a bulbous bow in reducing
the resistance of a ship hull is better seen in the high speed
Table 3 Bulbous bow parameters for best two hulls range, further calculations are carried out for four high
Optimized
Ymax Ycenter W L α speeds and comparison is made against the parent hull
hull (without a bulbous bow). The results are tabulated in Table 4
Hull-1 1.066T 0.509T 0.198B 0.082Lpp 9.5251 and presented in Fig. 18.
Hull-2 0.887T 0.537T 0.173B 0.054Lpp −11.808
Table 4 Resistance results of parent and optimized hulls
Optimized hull-1 Optimized hull-2
Parent hull Reduction Reduction
Fr
calculation in in
Rt/N Rt/N Rt/N
resistance resistance
/% /%
0.279 91.051 93.818 −3.039 85.697 5.880
0.299 118.520 111.535 5.893 107.726 9.107
0.319 137.361 127.683 7.045 126.931 7.593
0.34 155.646 146.728 5.730 147.253 5.393

Fig. 14 Bulbous bow sections of hull-1

Fig. 15 Longitudinal bulb sections of hull-1

Fig. 18 Comparison of total resistance for parent and

optimized hulls

Since the addition of a bulbous bow to ships also changes

the displacement of the ship, resistance comparison has also
been carried out as the total resistance per unit of
displacement. For the optimized hull-1 and hull-2, the
displacement is increased by 2.68% and 1.98%, respectively.
The resistance comparison per unit of displacement is
Fig. 16 Bulbous bow sections of hull-2 presented below in Table 5.

Table 5 Resistance comparisons per unit displacement of

parent and optimized hulls
Parent hull Optimized Optimized
calculation hull-1 hull-2
Fr
Reduction Reduction
Rt/disp. Rt/disp. Rt/disp.
/% /%
0.279 61.9345 62.1492 −0.3466 57.1759 7.6833
0.299 80.6190 73.8857 8.3520 71.8730 10.8485
Fig. 17 Longitudinal bulb sections of hull-2 0.319 93.4353 84.5831 9.4741 84.6868 9.3632
0.34 105.8732 97.1993 8.1928 98.2449 7.2052
6 Comparisons of results and discussions
The results presented in Tables 5 and 6 show that both
CFD calculations for the two optimized hulls with an
optimized hulls reduce total resistance as compared to
additive bulbous bow are carried out. To eliminate the effect
parent hull; however, optimized hull-2 has more reduction
of numerical error in the comparisons of CFD results,
overall in total resistance than hull-1. It can also be observed
meshing methodology, mesh size, computational domain
that the total resistance of hull-1 is greater than the parent
size, and all CFD parameters of the optimized hulls with an
hull at the Froude number 0.279, which signifies that the
additive bulbous bow are kept the same as for the parent hull
effect of a bulbous bow for reduction in resistance is greater
Journalof Marine Science and Application (2012) 11: 286-294 293

in the high speed range.

The wave profile of a series 60 parent hull and the two

optimized hulls are compared in Figs. 19–22. It can be
observed that the amplitude of waves for both optimized
hulls has been reduced; the low amplitude of waves indicates
the reduction in resistance of the optimized hulls. Wave
contours of the three hulls are presented in Figs. 23–25 and
the fraction of water contours are shown in Figs. 26–28. It is
Fig. 23 Free surface wave contours of parent hull at Fr=0.34
observed from the wave patterns that the distribution of the
wave field by the bow bulb is softer and has smaller bow
waves as compared to a bulb-less hull.

Fig. 24 Free surface wave contours of optimized hull-1 at

Fr=0.34

Fig. 19 Comparison of wave profile at Fr=0.34

Fig. 25 Free surface wave contours of optimized hull-2 at

Fr=0.34

Fig. 20 Comparison of wave profile at Fr=0.319

Fig. 26 Contours of volume of fraction (water) of parent

hull at Fr=0.34

Fig. 21 Comparison of wave profile at Fr=0.299

Fig. 27 Contours of volume of fraction (water) of optimized

hull-1 at Fr=0.34

Fig. 28 Contours of volume of fraction (water) of optimized

Fig. 22 Comparison of wave profile at Fr=0.279 hull-2 at Fr=0.34
294 Shahid Mahmood, et al. Computational Fluid Dynamics Based Bulbous Bow Optimization Using a Genetic Algorithm

7 Conclusions Jacquin E, Bellevere D, Alessandrini B, Cordier S (2002). Yacht

optimisation based on genetic algorithm using RANSE solver.
Optimization of a series 60 hull was carried out with the High Performance Yacht Design Conference, Auckland, 1-8.
integration of an additive bulb to the parent hull. Kracht AM (1978). Design of bulbous bows. SNAME Transactions,
Minimization of total resistance was selected as an objective 86, 197-217.
Lin CW, Percival S, Gotimer EH (1995). Viscous drag calculations
and optimization was carried out for a single speed
for ship hull geometry. 9th International Conference on
corresponding to Fr=0.34. Bulbous bow design was based
Numerical Methods in Laminar and Turbulent Flow, Atlanta,
on the parametric variables defining the shape of the bow. GA, 1209-1222.
The defined variables were able to cater to all three bulb Özdemir YH, Bayraktar S, Yılmaz T (2007). Computational
sectional profiles (e.g., O-type, ∇ -type, and ∆-type) and investigation of a hull. 2nd International Conference on
various longitudinal bulb profiles. GAMBIT and FLUENT Maritime Research and Transportation ICMRT, Ischia, Naples,
journal files were created in order to handle the geometrical Italy, 145-149.
changes as the bulbous bow parameters evolved. A Perez F, Suarez JA, Clemente JA (2007). Geometric modelling of
bulbous bows with the use of non-uniform rational B-spline
MATLAB program for genetic algorithm optimization was
surfaces. Journal of Marine Science and Technology, 12, 83-94.
developed to run the optimization process. After the Shahid M, Huang DB (2011). Resistance calculations of trimaran
completion of the optimization process, the best two hull hull form using computational fluid dynamics. Fourth
forms were obtained and the results were compared with the International Joint Conference on Computational Sciences and
parent hull without a bulbous bow. For both optimized hull Optimization, Kunming/Lijiang, 81-85.
forms, the total resistance was lower than for the parent hull. Takeshi H, Hino T, Hinatsu M, Tsukada Y, Fujisawa J (1987).
The change in wave profile around the hull was observed ITTC cooperative expreiments on series 60 model at ship
where the wave amplitude for both optimized hulls research institute – flow measurements and resistance tests.
Ship Res. Inst. Japan (Papers), Suppt. 9, 1-48.
decreased compared with the parent hull. The results
Zhang ZR, Liu H, Zhu SP, Zhao F (2006). Application of CFD in
obtained through optimization show the effectiveness of a
ship engineering design practice and ship hydrodynamics.
bulbous bow for ship hulls and the advantage of Journal of Hydrodynamics, 18(3), 315-322.
methodology to optimize the parameters for achieving hull
forms that have lower resistance than the parent hull. Shahid Mahmood is a PhD candidate at Harbin
Engineering University. He received a Bachelor
Optimization in this paper was carried out for the and a Master of Science degree in Mechanical
Engineering from Eastern Mediterranean
minimization of total resistance for single velocity.
University. His research interests are in
Sea-keeping characteristics of the hull were not taken into computational fluid dynamics, marine
account. hydrodynamics, ship resistance, and shape
optimization.

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