5. CONCLUSION
We have found optimum boats for minimum total drag over a large range of
speeds and displacements. Results were obtained both with and without
form drag corrections. Although the net contribution of form drag is small,
it can nevertheless be important in determining the optimum. The optimum
boats tend to be longer and have a lower wave resistance relative to
viscous resistance than conventional boats. The genetic algorithm tool
GODZILLA has proved useful in searching for the global minimum in the
presence of two or more local minima, and will be essential in extended
work involving multihulled vessels, shape variations and other constraints.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was supported by the Australian Research Council.
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