gwh%typhoon.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (George William Herbert) (11/22/89)
From: gwh%typhoon.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (George William Herbert) In article <11596@cbnews.ATT.COM> budden@manta.nosc.mil (Rex A. Buddenberg) writes: \ >The most ballyhooed hull form was SWATH and the naval engineers >finally weighed in with some substantive answers and some homework >to back it up. Both SWATH and hydrofoil use hull forms that rely >on means other than displacement shift to handle displacement changes. >........ > Non-conventional hulls such as hydrofoils, SWATH,...and submarines, >must use dynamic compensation systems -- as in parts that can break. >SWATH (and submarine forms) require dynamic displacement compensation -- >that is, as weight changes, the hull form can't rely on displacement >shifts to compensate. When the weight changes are sudden -- as in >aircraft launch/land, this presents a major problem which has ruled >out SWATH use for aircraft-capable ships anytime in the near future. The major problem with SWATH ships is one that i'm researching for a possible paper for [naval inst?]. Namely: that when they are (pick one) [Torpedoes, Mined, Missled below waterline etc] they sink. A lot. They sink in fact to the point of unuseability. The tradeoff is in stability in waves versus instability in sinkage and other weight change. SWATH are maxed out to the stable in waves end of the tradeoff. When they get hull damage they will tip to really extreme angles. Maybe not sink, but become mission kill victims. I really doubt that any future in naval applications can be found for the SWATH hull type, unless torpedo problems are overcome. Remember, you heard it here first. :) ***************************************************************************** George William Herbert UCB Naval Architecture [On schedule? at UCB? Yes!] gwh@ocf.berkeley.edu gwh@soda.berk... maniac@garnet.berk... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "And what if I Don't?" "Then, You will die, the Girl dies, everybody dies..." -Heavy Metal |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||