Boat designs inspired by nature

[asmith calif]

Hello everyone,

I work at a science museum in California and we are researching examples of boat design that are inspired by nature for a future exhibit. Any specific examples (famous or not) that you can think of would be very helpful in our research.

For example, if you know of a keel design inspired by a whale's fins or a boat hull that was shaped to resemble a fish's body, we would love to know about it.

Any thoughts on this topic would be most appreciated!

Aaron

[Leo Lazauskas]

Spider-cat!

[HASYB]

Aaron, look at the designs from Dick Newick!
http://www.wingo.com/newick/index.html
Or Windvinder project: http://www.windvinder.com/index.php?id=11&L=2
Denis Kergomard: http://www.alibi-architecture.eu/index.html

There are so many!!

Cheers,

Hielan

[Tiny Turnip]

Dolphin mini sub

http://youtu.be/WqCayDePoV4

http://seabreacher.com/watercraft

[Tiny Turnip]

Go on, here's another: Albatross:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4zEaYl01Uw

Oops. That's not actually a boat, now, is it?

[liki]

A duck boat with a sauna: http://is12.snstatic.fi/kuvat/ankka1...473606079.jpeg

[Leo Lazauskas]

Originally Posted by asmith calif

For example, if you know of a keel design inspired by a whale's fins or a boat hull that was shaped to resemble a fish's body, we would love to know about it.

These might be a little too obscure.

A Weinblum hull arrangement was named for the famous hydrodynamicist George Weinblum. For the unusual wave pattern created see:
http://www.cyberiad.net/wakeweinblum.htm

"Weinblum" is also (I believe, but check!) German for vine flower. These alternate on either side of the stem.

I found the low wave-making "diamond" tetrahull using Artificial Life methods.
http://www.cyberiad.net/waketet.htm
These techniques use analogues of genetics, Darwinian evolution, survival of the fittest, and Baldwinian learning to solve engineering problems.
A tenuous connection to your project, but they might be of interest.

Leo.

[daiquiri]

Leo, what would happen if you took a Weinblum arrangement and then perform the following transformations:
1) mirror the two hulls along some distant longitudinal axis, in order to create a quadrimaran
2) shift one of the two semi-arrangements longitudinally by half-wavelength, to make the wavetrains from the two semi-arrangements go out of phase by 180°
Would the resulting quadrimaran wavetrain be completely canceled out?
Cheers

[Leo Lazauskas]

Originally Posted by daiquiri

Leo, what would happen if you took a Weinblum arrangement and then perform the following transformations:
1) mirror the two hulls along some distant longitudinal axis, in order to create a quadrimaran
2) shift one of the two semi-arrangements longitudinally by half-wavelength, to make the wavetrains from the two semi-arrangements go out of phase by 180°
Would the resulting quadrimaran wavetrain be completely canceled out?
Cheers

I might be mis-understanding you, but isn't that the same as the diamond tetrahull (or quadrimaran)?

[daiquiri]

Oh yes, you're right! A diamond tetrahull is a particular case of the arrangement. I was talking about something like this:

Just an academic question, since a diamond tetrahull has a seakeeping and a maneuvering advantage related to longitudinal and lateral symmetry.

Cheers

[Leo Lazauskas]

Originally Posted by daiquiri

Oh yes, you're right! A diamond tetrahull is a particular case of the arrangement. I was talking about something like this:
Attachment 63987
Just an academic question, since a diamond tetrahull has a seakeeping and a maneuvering advantage related to longitudinal and lateral symmetry.

Cheers

It's not an arrangement that gives maximum (theoretical) wave cancellation of the diverging waves.

The diverging waves made by the inner hull on the starboard side and travelling to starboard will be cancelled
(in part) by the other hull on that side. But the waves travelling to port will not be cancelled as much.
Similarly, on the port side, there will be waves that are not being cancelled by the hulls on the starboard side.

Michlet can be used to investigate these sorts of arrangement. A feature that is not used often is the Free Wave Spectrum.
Examination of this spectrum shows in which directions most wave energy is being shed by a single hull at a particular
Froude number. The displacement of the other hulls and their location can then be chosen to cancel waves propagating in
those directions at certain Froude numbers. (Godzilla can be used to minimise waves propagating over ranges of
wave angles too, but that doesn't always give insights into why a certain arrangement works better than others).

Examination of the Free Wave Spectrum for a Weinblum is particularly informative because it shows how the unusual
wave pattern results from cancellation over certain wave angles and not others.
(There is an example of a Weinblum bundled with the free version of Michlet).

See also:
http://www.cyberiad.net/library/pdf/tl98.pdf
which shows how to arrange individual hulls to get (close to) maximum cancellation.
(There is an interesting use of Pascal's triangle for the truly nerdy!)


Leo.

[Richard Woods]

Is this the sort of thing you are after??

http://waylandwordsmith.blogspot.com...ocks-swan.html

and here

http://www.syntagmamedia.com/wp-cont...sm1991_450.jpg

BTW famous designer (Moodys etc) Bill Dixon is the same Dixon family as the Dixons boatyard mentioned in the above link. While Starcross Yacht Club, also on the Exe, was formed in 1772, so recreational sailing has been going on in the area for some years now

I think it is well known that Ben Lexan, amongst others, used dorsal fin shapes for his keel designs. Later of course he used different keels

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

[cyclops2]

The attack & BM nuclear subs are based on sea life.

[philSweet]

The corruGator I think it was inspired more by beer than by nature though.

[philSweet]

And this-

http://biomech.media.mit.edu/images/...obot_Final.pdf