Parametric hull design with rational Bézier curves and estimation of performances

Abstract

In this paper, a tool able to support the sailing yacht designer during the early stage of the design process has been developed. Cubic Rational Bézier curves have been selected to describe the main curves defining the hull of a sailing yacht. The adopted approach is based upon the definition of a set of parameters, say the length of waterline, the beam of the waterline, canoe body draft and some dimensionless coefficients according to the traditional way of the yacht designer. Some geometrical constraints imposed on the curves (e.g., continuity, endpoint angles, curvature) have been conceived aimed to avoid unreasonable shapes. These curves can be imported into any commercial Computer Aided Design (CAD) software and used as a frame to fit with a surface. The resistance of the hull can be calculated and plotted in order to have a real time estimation of the performances. The algorithm and the related Graphical User Interface (GUI) have been written in Visual Basic for Excel. To test the usability and the precision of the tool, two existing sailboats with different characteristics have been successfully replicated and a new design, taking advantages of both the hulls, has been developed. The new design shows good performances in terms of resistance values in a wide range of Froude numbers with respect to the original hulls.