Optimized design of hull form and bulbous bow for ULCS

In the outset, the paper envisages the current feasibility studies on the next generation Ultra Large Container Ship Design and its hydrodynamic aspects in a classical view point. Pressing demand for increased sizes and general consensus on the safety of Container ships are the motivations for this design. Current study focuses on the Hydrodynamic aspects of incorporating an ideal bulb for the mammoth ship with a capacity of 12500 TEU. Implementing ray theory clubbed with Kelvin's Wedge theory for the numerical analysis has derived a compromising results and pretty new idea formation for the design. The content of the paper will includes examination of design challenges, optimal design of hull form from hydrodynamic point of view, investigative studies on ideal bulb types and the numerical and CFD analysis for finding an ideal bulb for the hull form designed. Complying to the current market study on container shipment along with the necessity of maintaining high speeds stress on the necessity of optimizing the mammoth hull form for the ship with a potential bulb shape. Ray theory, evolved as an extension to the linear wave theory evolved as a proper tool for the design and has proved to give a satisfactory result with sufficient precision. A feedback check using CFD coding gives better results in wave pattern generated by the bow waves and a close check on caustics nullify the probability of wave breaking. Broadly speaking, this paper highlight the ideal design prospects of an optimum bulb for the next generation ULCS.