Hydroelastic Design of Subcavitating and Cavitating Hydrofoil Strut Systems

The report presents design procedures and parametric trends that can be used to avoid flutter and divergence of hydrofoil strut-foil systems. Flutter stability of conventional T-foils can be achieved by scaling existing prototype systems which are stable; scaled flutter models must be used to determine the stability of new designs. Several stable T-foil designs are available for craft with displacements of up to 300 tons at subcavitating speeds (below 50 knots). The availability of higher speed designs for ships of practical size is limited to one system that is stable to 62 knots. Divergence stability of subcavitating systems can be ensured by theoretical analysis using an available computer program.