Bulbous bow, what is it, where did they come from, how do they live?
Do you know that geometry like a big “nose” that advances to the front of the ship’s hull? It’s called the bulbous.
Historically, the first use of bow bulbs on ships was in wars to collide with enemy ships and to sink them.
However, over time it was noticed that ships that had this extra geometry sailed faster or had greater fuel economy at certain speeds, this being the main use of bulbs in the current times.
✔How does it work:
The hull of the ship generates a wave (1) that affects its performance (wave resistance), when adding the bulb, it generates another wave (2) with the same characteristics a little ahead, in order to stay out of phase. the hull; thus the wave (2) will cancel the wave (1) resulting in a much smaller wave (3). Phenomenon: DESTRUCTIVE WAVE INTERFERENCE.
BUT, the bulbous bow works with good results at just one speed and this is due to the need to offset the waves of the bulb and the bow of the ship. At other speeds, the effect may be the opposite.
Interactive Application
The application built in MS Excel is a basic analysis of the effect of the bulbous bow in merchant ships. With an intuitive user interface, the user can input different types of information, generating the analysis in real-time.
The charts illustrate the results of the user’s input and suggest the appropriate dimensions to the bulb.
