Experimental study on stepped spray deflectors for planning hull

Sammanfattning: Planning vessels can reach high operational speeds thanks to their hull design. Some hull forms will develop large volumes of spray attached to the hull surface. The whisker spray is a thin layer consisting in droplets of water which can ac-count for a large proportion of the total resistance. A new concept to redirect the spray, called de°ectors, has been developed by the Swedish company Petestep. These de°ectors indicate higher e˝ciency than the time-proven spray rails tech-nology by removing a bigger portion of the spray area. The spray is re°ected back-wards rather than to the sides, which allows kinetic energy contained in the spray sheet to be converted to additional forward thrust. However, there have only been a few studies conducted on the e˛ects of de°ectors and there is no precise method to analyze their e˝ciency over the full range of operating speeds. For the above-mentioned reason, experimental testing is needed to have a more complete under-standing of the phenomenon in calm water and waves. In this study, model scale tests of a modular planning hull are carried out at the Davidson Laboratory towing tank. The goal is to verify the beneÿts of the spray de°ectors by direct comparison with the bare hull conÿguration at the same trim angle.