JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #100 - Special JEC Asia - October 2015 - 59

fast boat

A new generation of fast, fuel-efficient boats

After two years of development, Advanced Aerodynamic Vessels
unveiled the prototype for a new type of fast boat on 25 March 2015
in La Rochelle. The prototype's radically new shape enables a combination of high speed and very low fuel consumption.

t took the engineers and naval architects at Advanced Aerodynamic Vessels (A2V) 18 months of design and
construction work with their partners to
come up with a shape that would create
aerodynamic lift when the boat picks
up speed. The design departs radically
from that of conventional boats, the
goal being to drastically reduce fuel
consumption. The company has been
conducting sea trials on the 10.5-metre
long prototype since spring to validate
the expected energy performance and
to calibrate the numerical models that it
developed to perfect this new generation of boats. The catamaran's current
configuration includes two 200-HP

outboard motors and should easily
reach speeds of 40 knots. In future, the
average cruising speed of this new type
of boat should reach 50-60 knots.

A revolutionary approach
In other words, the idea is not to struggle against the air in order to move
forward, but to use it for streamlining
to considerably reduce the resistance to
the boat's motion. The faster the boat is
moving, the more it "takes off " and the
less it resists the water. The idea may
be simple, but developing it required
thousands of hours of computer calculations - which is one of the company's
specialities - and close collaboration
with naval architects (Marc Lombard
Architecture Navale) and the Fernand
Hervé shipyard in La Rochelle.
A2V designed its prototype with the
goal of confirming the energy performance of this new generation of boats.
To test the concept of partial aerodynamic lift at different scales, the boat

needed to be as lightweight as possible,
so A2V used composite materials. The
catamaran is made of glass fibre reinforced polyester (the objective is to create
workboats at acceptable cost, not to
design a racing boat). The facilities on
the prototype are rudimentary, unlike
the plethora of scientific measuring instruments on board. It can carry a pilot,
two measurement engineers and up to
1,500 kg of payload and ballast. It can
also hold three additional passengers up
front.

A bold programme
Construction was completed in six
months, which is a record time. The
challenge was even greater due to the
boat's complex shapes. Thanks to a
versatile, close-knit team grounded in
creative construction techniques, the
project remained within the limited
budget allocated for the prototype.
The prototype is the experimental part
of a broader technological venture:

No100 October 2015 / jec

Feature Marine

Fig. 1: A2V coordinates sea trials on a fully instrumented prototype to validate the numerical simulations carried out for the past two years. Speed,
fuel efficiency, manoeuvrability, seakeeping and
many other variables will be accurately monitored
to optimize the prediction tools

Fig. 2: Using intensive systematic CFD simulations, the A2V team has developed a fully unsteady
aerodynamic model for wing in ground effect

composites magazine 59

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #100 - Special JEC Asia - October 2015