Bulbous bow

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The bulbous bow of the U.S. Navy carrierUSS Ronald Reagan made visible in drydock.

A bulbous bow is a protruding bulb at the bow (or front) of a ship just below the waterline. The bulb modifies
the way the water flows around the hull, reducing drag and thus increasing speed, range, fuel efficiency, and
stability. Large ships with bulbous bows generally have a twelve to fifteen percent better fuel efficiency than
similar vessels without them.[1]

Bulbous bows have been found to be most effective when used in vessels that meet the following conditions:

the waterline length is longer than about 15 metres (49 ft)

the vessel will operate with most of its time at or near its maximum speed [2]

Thus large vessels that cross large bodies of water near their best speed will benefit from a bulbous bow. This
would include naval vessels, cargo ships, passenger ships, tankers and supertankers. All of these ships tend to
be large and usually operate within a small range of speeds close to their top speed.[3]Bulbous bows are less
beneficial in smaller craft and may actually be detrimental to their performance and economy. Thus, they are
rarely used on recreational craft like powerboats, sailing vessels, tug boats, fishing trawlers and yachts.

How it works
Graphic demonstrating the how the bulbous bow influences water flow

In a conventionally shaped bow, a bow wave forms immediately before the bow. When a bulb is placed
below the water ahead of this wave, water is forced to flow up over the bulb. If the trough formed by water
flowing off the bulb coincides with the bow wave, the two partially cancel out and reduce the vessel's
wake. While inducing another wave stream saps energy from the ship, canceling out the second wave
stream at the bow changes the pressure distribution along the hull, thereby reducing wave resistance.
The effect that pressure distribution has on a surface is known as the form effect.

Some explanations note that water flowing over the bulb depresses the ship's bow and keeps it trimmed
better. Since many of the bulbous bows are symmetrical or even angled upwards which would tend to
raise the bow further, the improved trim is likely a by-product of the reduced wave action as the vessel
approaches hull speed, rather than direct action of water flow over the bulb.

A bulbous bow with a complex shape. The through tunnels in the side are bow thrusters (July 2006).

A sharp bow on a conventional hull form would produce waves and low drag like a bulbous bow, but
waves coming from the side would strike it harder. Also, in heavy seas, water flowing around the bulb
dampens pitching movements like a squiggle keel. The blunt bulbous bow also produces higher pressure
in a large region in front, making the bow wave start earlier.

The addition of a bulb to a ship's hull increases its overall wetted area. As wetted area increases, so does
drag. At greater speeds and in larger vessels it is the bow wave that is the greatest force impeding the
vessel's forward motion through the water. For a vessel that is small or spends a great deal of its time at a
slow speed, the increase in drag will not offset the benefit in dampening bow wave generation. As the
wave counter effects are only significant at the vessel's higher range of speed, bulbous bows are not
energy efficient when the vessel cruises outside of these ranges, specifically at lower speeds.

[edit]Development

The bulbous bow concept is credited to David W. Taylor, a naval architect who served as Chief
Constructor of the Navy [USA] during the First World War. The concept (known as a bulbous forefoot)
was first introduced in his design of the USS Delaware, which entered service in 1910. The bow design
did not initially enjoy wide acceptance. This all changed in the 1920s, with Germany's launching
the Bremen and the Europa. They were referred to as Germany's North Atlantic grey hounds, two large
commercial ocean liners that competed for the trans-Atlantic passenger trade. Both ships won the
coveted Blue Riband, the Bremen in 1929 with a crossing speed of 27.9 knots (51.7 km/h; 32.1 mph), and
the Europa surpassing her in 1930 with a crossing speed of 27.91 knots. [4]

The design began to be incorporated elsewhere, as seen in the U.S. built Malolo, President
Hoover and President Coolidge passenger liners launched in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Still the
idea was largely viewed as experimental by many ship builders and owners.

In 1935 the French superliner Normandie coupled a bulbous forefoot with massive size and a redesigned
hull shape. She was able to achieve speeds in excess of 30 knots (56 km/h). The Normandiewas famous
for many things, including her clean entry into the water and markedly reduced bow wave. Normandie's
great rival, the British liner Queen Mary, achieved equivalent speeds with a non-bulbous traditional stem
and hull design. However, a crucial difference was that Normandie achieved these speeds with
approximately thirty percent less engine horsepower than Queen Mary and with a corresponding
reduction in fuel use.

Bulbous bow designs were also independently developed and used by the Imperial Japanese Navy. A
modest bulbous bow was used in a number of their ship designs, including the light cruiser yodoand the
carriers Shkaku and Taih. A far more radical bulbous bow design solution was incorporated into their
massively large Yamato class battleships, including the Yamato, Musashi and the aircraft
carrier Shinano.[5]

The modern bulbous bow was developed by Dr. Takao Inui at the University of Tokyo during the 1950s
and 1960s, independently of Japanese naval research. Inui based his research on earlier findings by
scientists made after Taylor discovered that ships fitted with a bulbous forefoot exhibited substantially
lower drag characteristics than predicted. The bulbous bow concept was first definitively studied by
Thomas Havelock, Cyril Wigley and Georg Weinblum, including Wigley's 1936 work "The Theory of the
Bulbous Bow and its Practical Application" which examined the issues of wave production and
dampening. Inui's initial scientific papers on the effect of bulbous bow on wavemaking resistance were
collected into a report published by the University of Michigan in 1960. His work came to widespread
attention with his paper "Wavemaking Resistance of Ships" published by the Society of Naval Architects
and Marine Engineers in 1962.[6] It was eventually found that drag could be reduced by about five
percent. Experimentation and refinement slowly improved the geometry of bulbous bows, but they were
not widely exploited until computer modelling techniques enabled researchers at the University of British
Columbia to increase their performance to a practical level in the 1980s.

[edit]Sonar domes
Some warships specialized for anti-submarine warfare use a specifically shaped bulb as a hydrodynamic
housing for a sonar transducer, which resembles a bulbous bow but the hydrodynamic effects are only
incidental. The transducer is a large cylinder or sphere composed of a phased
array of acoustic transducers.[7] The entire compartment is flooded with water and the acoustic window of
the bulb is made of fiber-reinforced plastic or another material (such as rubber) transparent to underwater
sounds as they are transmitted and received. The transducer bulb places the sonar equipment at the
greatest possible distance from the ship's own noise-generating propulsion system.

Keel
n boats and ships, keel can refer to either of two parts: a structural element, or a hydrodynamic element.
These parts overlap. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in construction of a ship, in British
and American shipbuilding traditions the construction is dated from this event. Only the ship's launching is
considered more significant in its creation.

The word can also be used to refer to a complete boat, as in keelboat or Humber keel.

Structural keels

Keel laid for the USS United States in drydock

A structural keel is a large beam around which the hull of a ship is built. The keel runs in the middle of the
ship, from the bow to the stern, and serves as the foundation or spine of the structure, providing the major
source of structural strength of the hull. The keel is generally the first part of a ship's hull to be
constructed, and laying the keel, or placing the keel in the cradle in which the ship will be built, is often a
momentous event in a ship's construction so much so that the event is often marked with a ceremony,
and the term lay the keel has entered the language as a phrase meaning the beginning of any significant
undertaking. Modern ships are now largely built in a series of pre-fabricated, complete hull sections rather
than being built around a single keel, so the start of the shipbuilding process is now considered to be
when the first sheet of steel is cut.
The keel converts sideways force into a forward force.

The keel contributes substantially to the longitudinal strength and effectively local loading caused when
docking the ship. The most common type of keel is the "flat plate keel", and this is fitted in the majority of
ocean-going ships and other vessels. A form of keel found on smaller vessels is the "bar keel", which may
be fitted in trawlers, tugs, and smaller ferries. Where grounding is possible, this type of keel is suitable
with its massive scantlings, but there is always a problem of the increased draft with no additional cargo
capacity. If a double bottom is fitted, the keel is almost inevitably of the flat plate type, bar keels often
being associated with open floors, where the plate keel may also be fitted.

Duct keels are provided in the bottom of some vessels. These run from the forward engine room
bulkhead to the collision bulkhead and are utilized to carry the double bottom piping. The piping is then
accessible when cargo is loaded.

If a ship suffers severe structural stress classically during a shipwreck when running aground in a
heavy sea it is possible for the keel to break or be strained to the extent that it loses structural integrity.
In this case the ship is commonly said to have "broken its back". Such a failure means that the entire
structure of the ship and its machinery has been compromised and repairing such damage would require
virtually re-building the ship from the ground up. A ship that has broken its back is almost
certainly unsalvagable and subsequently written off by its insurers.

[edit]Hydrodynamic keels

Keels provide extra stability by providing a weight low enough to significantly lower the centre of gravity.

[edit]Non-sailing keels
The keel surface on the bottom of the hull gives the ship greater directional control and stability. In non-
sailing hulls, the keel helps the hull to move forward, rather than slipping to the side. In traditional boat
building, this is provided by the structural keel, which projects from the bottom of the hull along most or all
of its length. In modern construction the bar keel or flat-plate keel performs the same function. There are
many types of fixed keels, including full keels, long keels, fin keels, winged keels, bulb keels, and bilge
keels among other designs. Deep draft ships will typically have a flat bottom and employ only bilge keels,
both to aid directional control and to damp rolling motions
[edit]Sailboat keels
In sailboats, keels use the forward motion of the boat to generate lift to counteract the leeward force of
the wind. The rudimentary purpose of the keel is to convert the sideways motion of the wind when it is
abeam into forward motion. A secondary purpose of the keel is to provide ballast.

Capsizing effect of a sailing keel

Keels are different from centreboards and other types of foils in that keels are made of heavy materials to
provide ballast to stabilize the boat. Keels may be fixed, or non-movable, or they may retract to allow
sailing in shallower waters. Retracting keels may pivot (a swing keel) or slide upwards to retract, and are
usually retracted with a winch due to the weight of the ballast. Since the keel provides far more stability
when lowered than when retracted (due to the greater moment arm involved), the amount of sail carried is
generally reduced when sailing with the keel retracted.

Types of non-fixed keels include swing keels and canting keels. Canting keels can be found on racing
yachts, such as those competing in the Volvo Ocean Race. They provide considerably more righting
moment as the keel moves out to the windward-side of the boat while using less weight. The horizontal
distance from the weight to the pivot is increased, which generates a larger righting moment.

[edit]Etymology

The word "keel" comes from Old English col, Old Norse kjll, = "ship" or "keel". It has the distinction of
being regarded by some scholars as the very first word in the English language recorded in writing,
having been recorded by Gildas in his 6th century Latin work De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, under
the spelling cyulae (he was referring to the three ships that the Saxons first arrived in).[1][2]

Carina is the Latin word for "keel" and is the origin of the term careen (to clean a keel and the hull in
general, often by rolling the ship on its side). An example of this use is Careening Cove, a suburb
of Sydney, Australia, where careening was carried out in early colonial days.