International Journal: Mathematical Manuscripts.

Volume 1 Number 1 (2007), pp. 59–64

© Research India Publications
http://www.ripublication.com/ijmm.htm

Something about Conformal Mapping in

Hydrodynamic1

Camelia Ciobanu
Mircea cel Batran Naval Academy, Constanţa, Romania
E-mail: [email protected]

Alina Barbulescu
Ovidius University of Constanţa, Romania
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

The ship hull forms have been described by the well-known classic Lewis trans-
formation [1], and by an Extended-Lewis transformation with three parameters, as
given by Athanassoulis and Loukakis [2], with practical applicability for any types
of ships. We have already presented [3] an algorithmic method solving directly
the problems that appear in naval architecture domain concerning the contour of
ship’s cross-section. In this paper we present how we may extend the Lewis trans-
formation to obtain the contour of the ship’s cross-section of different types of ships.

AMS Subject Classification:

Keywords:

1. Introduction
During the last 20 years, in the area of naval hydrodynamics as well as in other domains
of mechanical engineering, a growing interest has occurred towards the algorithmic
methods of solving some definite problems.
The shapes of the ships have been described around a point, as it is difficult to describe
them according to analytical mappings.
It is necessary to approximate the ship’s shape by continuous functions, in order to
get some practical results. A method which has imposed itself during the last few years is
1
This research was supported by Grant 106/17.08.2007 of Romanian Academy
60 Camelia Ciobanu and Alina Barbulescu

that of multi-parameter conformal mapping, with good results also in the case of extreme
bulbous forms.
The advantage of conformal mapping is that the velocity potential of the fluid around
an arbitrary shape of a cross-section in a complex plane can be derived from the more
convenient circular section in another complex plane. In this manner, hydrodynamic
problems can be solved directly by using the coefficients of the mapping function.
The general transformation formula is given by


n
f (Z) = µs a2k−1 Z −2k+1 , (1.1)
k=0

with f (Z) = z, z = x + iy is the plane of the ship’s cross-section, Z = ieα e−iϕ is the
plane of the unit circle, µs is a scale factor, a−1 = 1, a2k−1 are the conformal mapping
coefficients (k = 1, . . . , n), n is the number of parameters.
Therefore we can write in turn:


n
x + iy = µs a2k−1 (ieα e−iϕ )−(2k−1) , (1.2)
k=0

n
x + iy = µs (−1)k a2k−1 e−(2k−1)α [i cos(2k − 1)ϕ − sin(2k − 1)ϕ]. (1.3)
k=0
From the relation between the coordinates in the z – plane (the ship’s cross-section) and
the variables in the Z – plane (the circular cross-section), it follows that


n
x = −µs (−1)k a2k−1 e−(2k−1)α sin(2k − 1)ϕ, (1.4)
k=0


n
y = µs (−1)k a2k−1 e−(2k−1)α cos(2k − 1)ϕ. (1.5)
k=0

Now by using conformal mapping approximations, the contour of the ship’s cross-
section follows from putting α = 0 in (1.4) and (1.5). We get


n
x0 = −µs (−1)k a2k−1 sin(2k − 1)ϕ,
k=0


n
y 0 = µs (−1)k a2k−1 cos(2k − 1)ϕ.
k=0

The breadth on the waterline of the approximate ship’s cross-section is defined by

n
B0 = 2µs β, with β = a2k−1 ,
k=0
Something about Conformal Mapping in Hydrodynamic 61

and the draft is defined by

n
D0 = 2µ(s)δ, with δ= (−1)k a2k−1 .
k=0

The breadth on the waterline is obtained for ϕ = π/2, that means

n
xπ/2 = −µs (−1)k a2k−1 sin(2k − 1)π/2,
k=0

hence


n
xπ/2 = µs (−1)k a2k−1 , and B0 = 2xπ/2 .
k=0
The scale factor is µs = B0 /2β and the draft is obtained for ϕ = 0:


n

n
y0 = µs (−1) a2k−1 cos(2k − 1)0, hence y0 = µs
k
(−1)k a2k−1 and
k=0 k=0

D0 = y0 with µs = D0 /δ.

2. Extended Lewis Conformal Mapping

We can obtain better approximations of the cross sectional hull form by taking into
account also the first order moments of half the cross section about the x− and y−axes.
These two additions to the Lewis formulation were proposed by Reed and Nowacki [4]
and have been simplified by Athanassoulis and Loukakis [2] by taking into account the
vertical position of the centroid of the cross-section. This has been done by extending
the Lewis transformation from n = 2 to n = 3 in the general transformation formula.
The three-parameter Extended Lewis transformation of a cross-section is defined by

z = f (Z) = µs a−1 Z + µs a1 Z −1 + µs a3 Z −3 + µs a5 Z −5 , (2.1)

where a−1 = 1, µs is the scale factor and the conformal mapping coefficients a1 , a3 , a5
are called Lewis coefficients.
Then, for z = x + iy and Z = ieα e−iϕ , that is, Z = ieα [cos(−ϕ) + i sin(−ϕ], we
have
x = µs (eα sin ϕ + a1 e−α sin ϕ − a3 e−3α sin 3ϕ + a5 e−5α sin 5ϕ),
and
y = µs (eα cos ϕ − a1 e−α cos ϕ + a3 e−3α cos 3ϕ − a5 e−5α cos 5ϕ).
For α = 0 we obtain the contour of the so-called Extended Lewis form expressed as

x0 = µs (sin ϕ + a1 sin ϕ − a3 sin 3ϕ + a5 sin 5ϕ),

62 Camelia Ciobanu and Alina Barbulescu

and
y0 = µs (cos ϕ − a1 cos ϕ + a3 cos 3ϕ − a5 cos 5ϕ),
where the scale factor µs is

µs = Bs /2(1 + a1 + a3 + a5 ) or µs = Ds /(1 − a1 + a3 − a5 ),

in which Bs is the sectional breadth on the waterline and Ds is the sectional draught.
The half breadth-to-draft ratio H0 is given by
Bs
H0 = = (1 + a1 + a3 + a5 )/(1 − a1 + a3 − a5 ).
2Ds
An integration of the Extanded Lewis form delivers the sectional area coefficient σs :

σs = As /Bs Ds = π/4 · (1 − a12 − 3a32 − 5a52 )/[(1 + a3 )2 − (a1 + a5 )2 ]

in which As is the area of the cross-section, As = π/2 · µ2s (1 − a12 − 3a32 − 5a52 ) and
Bs Ds = 2[(1 + a3 )2 − (a1 + a5 )2 ].
Now the coefficients a1 , a3 , a5 and the scale factor µs will be determined in such a
manner that the sectional breadth, the draft and the area of the approximate cross-section
and of the actual cross-section are identical. We have already presented [3] a typical
and realistic form. More precisely, we have considered a dry bulk carrier of 55.000 tone
deadweight capacity. That application was made in Java language and created both a
text file and a graphical chart.
Figure 1 was obtained from the previous method with a softwere package specially
developed for this purpose [3].
The graphical representation of the points shows the contour of the ship’s cross-
section of the dry bulk carrier.

Figure 1: The graphical representation the contour of the ship’s cross-section of the dry
bulk carrier.
Something about Conformal Mapping in Hydrodynamic 63

3. Conclusions
This is a mathematical solution in order to obtain the contour of the ship’s cross-section
of different types of ships, using conformal mapping approximations.
The advantage of conformal mapping is that the velocity potential of the fluid around
an arbitrary shape of a cross-section in a complex plane can be derived from the more
convenient circular section in another complex plane.
In the future we hope to obtain the graphical representation which will be much better
because we will consider three coefficients.

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64 Camelia Ciobanu and Alina Barbulescu

[12] F. Tasai. Improvements in the Theory of Ship Motions in Longitudinal Waves,

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