An Experimental Study on Wind Loads Acting on a Trimaran PCC

In recent years,demands for car transportation by a ship have been increasing with favorable economic conditions in auto sector,and the need of a pure car carrier(PCC) has grown quickly.A PCC needs huge parking space but smaller displacement since a car is comparatively light for its volume.As a result,almost all PCCs have wide breadth,shallow draft and huge structure above the water surface.These features cause some technical issues of a PCC,like lack of stability,effect of strong winds on its resistance,difficulty of course keeping in rough seas,difficulty of berthing in strong winds,and so on.To overcome these technical issues,one of the authors has proposed a new concept for a PCC.This is a trimaran PCC which has very limited transverse bulkheads in the center hull by using two side hulls as fenders.In the present research,wind forces acting on a scale model of the trimaran PCC were measured in the towing tank with a wind generator at Osaka Prefecture University.Furthermore,in order to clarify the characteristics of wind pressure on the trimaran,height and width of tunnels which are between a main hull and side hulls were changed.And then,in order to imitate a real ship,we used wind reduction technology of corner-cut design for accommodation house of the ship.Moreover,the wind pressure acting on the trimaran was compared with that on a mono-hull PCC.Using these experimental and theoretical results,an estimation method of wind pressure acting on the trimaran PCC is deduced.

A Feasibility Study on a New Trimaran PCC in Medium Speed——Performance in Still Water and Strong Wind

In the present paper,a new trimaran Pure Car Carrier(PCC) is proposed and a feasibility study on the ship is carried out.In this study,first,the effective horse power(EHP)/car of the PCC running in still water is predicted.By comparing the predicted EHP/car with that of a conventional mono-hull PCC,it is found that the trimaran PCC is superior to the conventional mono-hull PCC at rather higher speed.As ship speed increases,the reduction of the resistance of the trimaran is bigger.It is also found that at common service speed of PCCs,the EHP/car of a small PCC is lower than that of a conventional PCC.Secondly,the optimal L/B of a main-hull of the trimaran PCC in still water is determined.The optimal L/B of the main-hull varies with ship speed and size because the wave resistance decreases but the frictional resistance increases as L/B of the hull increases.As ship size increases,the optimal L/B of the main-hull of the trimaran PCC decreases.Finally,the increase of the resistance of PCCs running in strong wind is predicted.The results show that drift angle and speed reduction of the trimaran PCC are much smaller than the conventional mono-hull PCC because of large side force created by three demi-hulls.