Hydrodynamic analysis and improvement of pontoon boats

This study is related to the design features of pontoon boats that enjoy an increasing market share in global recreational boat industry. In this investigation, a representative pontoon boat with three cylindrical buoyancy elements was taken as the model to be studied. Afterwards, the buoyancy elements were improved to optimize hydrodynamic properties using a computational fluid dynamics package. The objective functions were the total hydrodynamic resistance of the boat and the distribution of the turbulence viscosity and total pressure on the hulls. By means of the obtained results, the powering requirements were estimated both for a service speed and for a maximum speed as well as findings were discussed.