Abstract
The acceleration to take-off (in calm water and rough seas) is a short duration but very important motion regime of a WIG-craft. It determines the transport efficiency of a WIG-craft as a viable alternative to high speed marine vehicles or low speed aircrafts used in conveying workers to and offshore oil and gas fields. The development of a simulation model based on results from constant speed captive model tests for a WIG boat is imperative, when in the absence of appropriate experimental test rig, there is the need to investigate the attitude of the WIG-craft during its acceleration phase. Theoretical tools for investigating the characteristics of the acceleration phase of a WIG boat are uncommon and where they exist, they are almost unreliable, not been experimentally validated. Moreover, the cost associated with conducting acceleration tests is huge. The test facilities are not readily available in most maritime engineering research institutions. This study is concerned with the development of a simulation model with input from results of captive model tests to investigate the running attitude, forces and moments acting on a WIG-boat accelerating to take-off in calm water. A constrained model tests at constant speed levels were conducted for a range of model draughts and trim angles. Multivariate multiple regression method was used to develop model equations that fits the measured aero-hydro dynamic lift, drag and moment data as a function of draught, speed and trim angle. The hydrostatic and aero-hydrodynamic steady state forces and moments where combined into a state-space form which are solved in MATLAB. The state variables and the first and second derivatives of the states of the boat as well as the forces and moments acting on it are generated as output from the simulation model. Though the simulation model proved successful in predicting the attitude of the WIG-boat including crashing and excessive acceleration and power requirement during take-off, the results from the model still need to be verified with CFD analysis, a full WIG-boat trial tests or with the expensive high speed towing tank capable of carrying out acceleration runs. The method has the potential to be improved to account for the unsteady forces and moments that exists when the WIG-boat accelerates from offshore environment.
