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University of New Orleans

A Theory and Analysis of Planing Catamarans in Calm and Rough Water

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

A planing catamaran is a high-powered, twin-hull water craft that develops the lift which supports its weight, primarily through hydrodynamic water pressure. Presently, there is increasing demand to further develop the catamaran's planing and seakeeping characteristics so that it is more effectively applied in today's modern military and pleasure craft, and offshore industry supply vessels. Over the course of the past ten years, Vorus (1994,1996,1998,2000) has systematically conducted a series of research works on planing craft hydrodynamics. Based on Vorus' planing monohull theory, he has developed and implemented a first order nonlinear model for planing catamarans, embodied in the computer code CatSea. This model is currently applied in planing catamaran design. However, due to the greater complexity of the catamaran flow physics relative to the monohull, Vorus's (first order) catamaran model implemented some important approximations and simplifications which were not considered necessary in the monohull work. The research of this thesis is for relieving the initially implemented approximations in Vorus's first order planing catamaran theory, and further developing and extending the theory and application beyond that currently in use in CatSea. This has been achieved through a detailed theoretical analysis, algorithm development, and careful coding. The research result is a new, complete second order nonlinear hydrodynamic theory for planing catamarans. A detailed numerical comparison of the Vorus's first order nonlinear theory and the second order nonlinear theory developed here is carried out. The second order nonlinear theory and algorithms have been incorporated into a new catamaran design code (NewCat). A detailed mathematical formulation of the base first order CatSea theory, followed by the extended second order theory, is completely documented in this thesis.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Ph.D.
Level thesis:degree_level
Dissertation
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering
Year
2003

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Zhou, Zhengquan
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Vorus, William
  • Wei, Dongming
  • Falzarano, Jeffrey

Subjects

dc:subject × 19

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Repository record dc:identifier
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/28
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:scholarworks.uno.edu:td-1027

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
University of New Orleans
Base URL
scholarworks.uno.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Zhou, Zhengquan. A Theory and Analysis of Planing Catamarans in Calm and Rough Water. Dissertation thesis, 2003. https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/28