A review on the hydrodynamics of planing hulls

The topology of planing hulls entails some of the most innovative specifications found in modern advanced marine vehicles. Planing hull designs can vary depending on their intended use and hence sound understanding of the influence of hydrodynamics on craft stability and performance is key within the context of modern design for safety and sustainability requirements. The planing motions of stepless or stepped hull surfaces, be it steady or unsteady are strongly coupled with nonlinear fluid flows. Consequently, calm water performance, seakeeping and maneuvering in waves, can be idealised by a diverse array of analytical and simulation-based models. In this paper, we holistically review scholarly studies on the subject, discuss research challenges and opportunities ahead. A conclusion drawn is that, although the mathematical models, especially the ones that simulate maneuvering motions, require further development to account for the complexities of operating in a real-world marine environment, they are mostly limited to monohull designs without steps. It is also suggested that the emergence of new-generation artificial intelligence algorithms opens up new prospects for hydrodynamic modelling and design as accounting for dynamic motion predictions. The holistic optimization of planing hulls, a realm yet overlooked in the context of planing hydrodynamics, is identified as an important and interesting future research opportunity. Pairing of AI algorithms with holistic optimization methods is recommended as a key direction in the development of intelligent planing boat design systems.