The Full-Scale Viscous Drag of Actual Ship Surfaces and the Effect of Quality of Roughness on Predicted Power
The hydrodynamic roughness functions of hull surfaces are surveyed. Δu+ is given for many different coated surfaces; all the surfaces have different topographies and all have roughness functions of different shapes which reveal that the quality of the roughness is as important as height in the generation of drag. The variety of these functions demonstrates that the viscous drag cannot be predicted without the use of the actual Au+ of the surface of interest. The planar drag coefficients of some of the hull surfaces are given as curves of CFR(Rn) and of ΔO(Rn). The behavior of ΔC with speed is compared with that deduced from careful trials, and is fully compatible with it. It is not compatible, however, with that of the ITTC formulae for AC, and the scientific foundations of the formulae are studied and found unsatisfactory. The influence of surface quality, hitherto not taken into account in predicting performance, could easily explain the relatively large errors in the statistics of predicted trial power. Shipbuilders need to measure the functions ΔU+ of their new hull surfaces and to acquire a data bank connecting their methods of finishing their hulls with Δu+.