Resumen de On the Sinkage of Ships

Luis Perez Rojas, Adriana Oliva Remola, Misael Goicoechea

• All ships acquire a dynamic trim and sinkage when they are in motion. These dynamic parameters depend on the hull shape and the velocity. The ship at rest already has a specific trim, the difference between the draft forward and the draft aft, due to its loading condition. Once in motion, and because of the pressure distribution along the hull, the ship reaches a new equilibrium condition, which is stationary if the ship’s velocity is kept constant and no sea state is considered. Although there are many publications devoted to optimizing the trim to obtain the minimum drag, the same cannot be said regarding the sinkage that appears to have been forgotten from any consideration. This work is dedicated to analyzing the sinkage phenomenon that the ship suffers when it is in motion. The aim is to quantify the prejudicial effect that the sinkage has over the drag resistance, both from the numerical and experimental points of view. Finally, the last purpose is to evaluate the effect of the hull shape on this phenomenon, whose assessment allows for the reaching of a hull shape optimization.