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Optimization of hull lines for the minimum resistance to movement is a problem of current interest in ship hydrodynamics. In practice, lines design is still to some extent an art. The usual approaches to decrease the ship resistance are based on the model experiment and/or CFD simulation, following the trial and error method. The paper presents a new method of in-detail hull form design based on the wave-based optimization approach. The method provides systematic variation of the hull geometrical form, which corresponds to alteration of longitudinal distribution of the hull volume, while its vertical volume distribution is fixed or highly controlled. It’s well known from the theoretical studies that the vertical distribution can't be optimized by condition of minimum wave resistance, thus it can be neglected for the optimization procedures. The method efficiency was investigated by application to the foreship of KCS, the well-known test object from the workshop Gothenburg-2000. The variations of the longitudinal distribution of the volume were set on the sectional area curve as finite volume increments and then transferred to the lines plan with the help of special frame transformation methods. The CFD towing simulations were carried out for the initial hull form and the six modified variants. According to the simulation results, examined modifications caused the resistance increments in the range 1.3–6.5 %. Optimization process was underpinned with the respective data analysis based on the new hypothesis, according to which, the resistance increments caused by separate longitudinal segments of hull form meet the principle of superposition. The achieved results, which are presented as the optimum distribution of volume present in the optimized designed hull form, which shows the interesting characteristics that its resistance has decrease by 8.9 % in respect to initial KCS hull form. Visualization of the wave patterns showed an attenuation of the transversal wave components, and the intensification of the diverging wave components.

Numerical simulation of hull flow, marine propellers and other basic problems of ship hydrodynamics using Cartesian adaptive locally-refined grids is advantageous with respect to numerical setup and makes an express analysis very convenient. However, when more accurate viscous phenomena are needed, they condition some problems including a sharp increase of cell number due to high levels of main grid adaptation needed to resolve boundary layers and time step decrease in simulations with a free surface due to decrease of transit time in adapted cells. To avoid those disadvantages, additional boundary layer grids are suggested for resolution of boundary layers. The boundary layer grids are one-dimensional adaptations of main grid layers nearest to a wall, which are built along a normal direction. The boundary layer grids are additional (or chimerical), their volumes are not subtracted from main grid volumes. Governing equations of flow are integrated in both grids simultaneously, and the solutions are merged according to a special algorithm. In simulations of ship hull flow boundary layer grids are able to provide sufficient conditions for low-Reynolds turbulence models and significantly improve flow structure in continues boundary layers along smooth surfaces. When there are flow separations or other complex phenomena on a hull surface, it can be subdivided into regions, and the boundary layer grids should be applied to the regions with simple flow only. This still provides a drastic decrease of computational efforts. In simulations of marine propellers, the boundary layer grids are able to provide refuse of wall functions on blade surfaces, what leads to significantly more accurate hydrodynamic forces. Altering number and configuration of boundary grid layers, it is possible to vary a boundary layer resolution without change of a main grid. This makes the boundary layer grids a suitable tool to investigate scale effects in both problems considered.