Study of trimaran stability in longitudinal waves

The design constraints connected with speed, safety and environmental compatibility for waterborne transportation craft are often contradictory and, as a rule, lead to design compromises. In this paper, attention is focused on fast transportation operated by means of trimaran vessels. The need for energy saving and environmental sustainability leads to the reduction of the beam and the wetted surface of the outriggers as a general trend. In this paper, the behaviour of a trimaran in longitudinal regular waves is studied on an experimental basis as a function of speed for different wave conditions. The experimental results indicate an extreme sensitivity of trimarans of this type to the danger connected with the onset of parametric rolling.