Catamaran ship design

We will participate in a competition with our friends to make an unmanned marine vehicle. We are all aerospace engineers, we need to learn the formulas. We will use in ship design, we do not know which formulas to use, how to use them, where to apply them. Can anyone suggest an open source? We plan to make the ship as a catamaran. Stability and movement are very important to us.

Welcome to the Forum Ufuk.

Were you provided with a 'Statement of Requirements' by the Competition organisers?
If you have been provided with even a basic specification, can you post a copy here please?
This might describe what your unmanned marine vehicle will have to be capable of.
Even though it does not have to carry any crew or passengers, you will still need to make sure that you have enough buoyancy in the hulls to support the weight of the marine vehicle at it's design displacement.
Re formulas to use and suchlike, the book in the link below is an excellent introduction to the basics of naval architecture (I have a copy) -
https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Design-Boat-Power-Sailmate-ebook/dp/B00UFPPFQO/ref=sr_1_1

Like a robobat competition. just we do not know which formulas to use, how to use them, where to apply them? and we need formulas for build catamaran usv

Ufuk said:

Like a robobat competition. just we do not know which formulas to use, how to use them, where to apply them? and we need formulas for build catamaran usv

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One thing that is taught poorly at universities is System Engineering (including the one I attended). This leads to either a complete lack of requirements management or getting lost in over-applying some system engineering philosophy.

The key steps are identifying and writing down the most important reqirements. They should be written in a way, that there are many possible solutions.

I am a aircraft engineer, but I hope the same applies to boats:

- how much payload
- what kind of payload
- mass distribution and variability of the center of gravity of the payload (moving passengers, standing passengers, sitting passengers, cargo)
- dimensions of the payload (e.g. 95th percentile men to 5th percentile women in Europe, euro-pallet etc.)
- desired speed (often only the rough goal is important)
- range (one way or return trip)
- sea states for normal operation
- sea states as design limit
- fuel type and engine type
- sensor types (better: "what needs to be sensed)
- harbour type (im thinking equivalent of runway properties)
- temperature ranges

Once these are defined the whole team has the same idea of what the goal of the project is. Now each can start reading papers, watch youtube videos, search for books, to understand the existing solutions. Also dive into the certification requirements. Then you can have a brain storming session and come up with concepts.

The brainstorming should be open to all ideas, including "stupid" solutions, because discussing solutions can lead to new solutions or modify other solutions.

Then remove the most infeasible and most complicated solutions. Start to evaluate the remaining solutions. Now you know what to search for on google, youtube, chatgpt, and the library.

Thx for all.

The formulas are just a representation of a system. They make no sense without the knowledge of what they represent and within what context to apply them. Firstly, don't use any formula for ships if you are building a small boat. Secondly, specify the basics like lenght of boat, load capacity, minimum volume, speed target,etc. A catamaran may be appropriate, but you won't know until the design starts developing.