Principles of naval engineering - Historic Naval Ships Association

CHAPTER 25NEW DEVELOPMENTS INNAVAL ENGINEERINGNew developments in naval engineering tendto be closely related to concepts of strategy. Insome instances, new concepts of strategy mayforce the development of new engineering equipmentto meet specific needs; in other instances,the development of a new source of power, anew engine, a new hull form, or a new propulsivedevice opens up new strategic possibilities. Inany event, engineering capability is a majorlimiting factor in strategic planning, since itdetermines what is possible and what is notpossible in the way of ship operation.In previous chapters of this text, we havebeen concerned with naval engineering equipmentcurrently installed in naval ships. But itwould be unreasonable to assume that presentachievements, impressive though they may be,are the last word in naval engineering. Practicallyeverything in the Navy— policies, procedures,publications, systems, and equipment— issubject to rapid change and development, andnaval engineering is certainly no exception. Therate of change in technological areas is increasingall the time. The officer who is just beginninghis naval career may well, in the course of afew years, see more changes in naval engineeringthan have been seen in the past half centuryor more. And, difficult though it may be, everynaval officer has a responsibility for keeping upwith new developments.Because of the increasingly rapid rate oftechnological development, it is no mean feat tokeep abreast of changes in engineering equipment.In order to keep up with new developmentsin naval engineering, it is necessary to readwidely in the literature of the field and to developa special kind of alertness for information thatmay ultimately have an effect on naval engineering.In the present chapter, we will depart fromour previous framework of the here- and-now andmention briefly a few areas which, at present,appear to offer some promise for future applicationin the field of naval engineering. With afew exceptions, the areas noted in this chapterare ones in which some actual work has beendone or in which some serious thought has beengiven to naval engineering applications. It shouldbe emphasized that this chapter is neither a completesurvey of new developments nor a crystalballtype reading of the future. Some of the areasmentioned here may turn out to have little or noapplication to naval engineering, while areas thatare not even mentioned may suddenly come intoprominence and importance.HULL FORMSMany new developments in naval engineeringhave been aimed, directly or indirectly, at increasingthe speed of ships. One approach to thisproblem is to increase the size or change thenature of the propulsion machinery— a solutionwhich, for various reasons, is not always feasible.Even when larger or better propulsion machineryis feasible, it is not always a total solutionto the problem of increased speed, since atleast some of the increased power thus providedis needed to overcome the increased resistanceof the ship at the resulting higher speed. In thecontinuing search for ways to achieve higheroperating speeds, therefore, a considerableamount of thought has been given to new hullforms which will reduce the resistance of theship as it moves through the water.A surface ship moving through the water isimpeded by various resistances, ^ chiefly thef rictional resistance of the water and the resistancethat results from the generation of wavetrains by the ship itself. Overcoming each ofFundamentals of ship resistance are discussed inchapter 5 of this text.628