Hullspeed provides a means of predicting the resistance of a ship hull. Maxsurf designs may be read in and automatically measured to obtain the required parameters, or the parameters may be typed by hand without the need for an existing Maxsurf design file. If the overall efficiency of the propulsion installation is known, or may be estimated, the power requirements of the design may be predicted.
Given the data required for the resistance prediction algorithms selected for analysis, Hullspeed will calculate the hull resistance at a range of speeds and will give results in graphical and tabular formats. These results may be copied to a spreadsheet or word processor for further analysis and/or formatting.
Hullspeed supports resistance prediction calculations for a wide range of monohulls and multihulls.
Many different approaches exist to predict the resistance of a vessel. Hullspeed implements several different resistance prediction algorithms, each applicable to various families of hull shapes. For example, some of the algorithms are useful for estimating the resistance of planing hulls, while others are useful for estimating the resistance of sailing boat hulls.
Besides resistance prediction calculations, Hullspeed can also be used to calculate the wave pattern generated by the vessel for a given velocity.
It should be emphasised that resistance prediction is not an exact science and that the algorithms implemented in this program, while they are useful for estimating the resistance of a hull, may not provide exact results.