Talk:Bulbous bow

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Contents 1 Sonar Dome 2 Comment 3 "Large seas"? 4 Yamato? 5 Andrea Doria 6 History of bulbous bow

[edit] Sonar Dome

I fail to see how Sonar Domes are related to bulbous bows. Most sonar domes are located on the bottom hull of the ship not on the side surfaces. Also this section is completely unreferenced. --66.54.184.41 20:26, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Antisubmarine ships routinely use bow-mounted sonar, see [1] for a good photo of a DDG-51 class destroyer with its bulbous bow sonar. Georgewilliamherbert 21:06, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Comment

While 'bulbous bow' is the tern commonly used for this feature, it is strictly a bulbous forefoot. The forefoot being the junction between the keel and the stem. As structural features, both stem and keel as narrowly defined, have been superseded by plate structures but their positions in the structure of the ship are recalled when naming these parts of the hull. The flow characteristics around sharp and bulbous forefoots are analagous to those investigated in the early years of the development of modern (motorised) torpedoes. The earliest ones were pointed but it was soon found that a hemispherical fore end permitted more efficient passage through the water.

[edit] "Large seas"?

However, neither of these explanations accounts for the fact that vessels with bulbous bows handle better in large seas.

What does "large seas" mean here? Deep? High waves? --P3d0 16:21, Apr 1, 2005 (UTC)

Heavy seas? Rmhermen 16:25, Apr 1, 2005 (UTC)

Ok, what is that? I think we should strive to use minimal jargon, and failing that, we should define our terms. --P3d0 18:23, Apr 4, 2005 (UTC)

When I wrote that I meant "Heavy Seas", which indicates large (i.e. amplitude) waves which are usually (though not by definition) accompanied by high winds and rain/sleet. -Lommer | ^talk 21:20, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Yamato?

Wasn't the design of Japanese battleship Yamato one of the earliest successful examples of bulbous bow? I remember they tried several wax models to reach the final 3 meter long design. -- Toytoy 08:13, Apr 17, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Andrea Doria

The image caption has been changed from bulbous bow to sonar dome. If this is true (and it looks like it to me), I think that the image should be removed from the article. What do other people think? --Apyule 08:19, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

I think it still qualifies as a bulbous bow, especially given that the "additional benifits" section of the article explicitly addresses this point. I've clarified the caption to reflect my interpretation... how's that? -Lommer | ^talk 18:40, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, looking at it that way I think I've changed my mind. It should stay now. --Apyule 01:07, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

I'm not so sure, bulbous bows are generally only used for hydrodynamic purposes, a sonar dome is a completely different object, it's not really relevant to the topic. I've taken it out for now, and edited the "Additional Benefits" section to make the distinction clearer. Kupos 19:30, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] History of bulbous bow

I have read in some books that the effect of bulbous bow on the speed was observed during the American Civil War. Those days ships used to ram each other with pointed iron rods fixed to the bow under water. It was observed that those ships which had these rams traveled faster. And the scientific study followed from that observation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.1.192.7 (talk) 17:01, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

I will try to be more complete in future and add to the page, but a few key points: 1. the bulbous forefoot was developed by the US naval constructor David Taylor and used on several battleships in the 1920s 2. The US passenger ship Malolo was the first commercial vessel to use a bulbous forefoot (it was designed by Gibbs and Cox, who had close ties to the US Navy and Admiral Taylor) 3. The German ships Bremen and Europa followed suite. It is not clear whether German naval architects developed the concpet independently or they learned of the American research 4. The Russian naval constructor Vladimir Yourkevitch used the bulbous forefoot on his battleship designs in the 1920s, but they were never built. He emigarted to France where, famously, he designed the hull of the passenger liner Normandie with a bulbous forefoot. 5. The bulbous bow we know and love today was developed in the late 1950s in Japan by Takao Inui, now an emeritus professor at the University of Tokyo. He developed it after carefully studying the wave theories of Havelock in Britain (Havelock and Wigely had come up with the concept of a wave-cancelling bulb in the 1920s and 30s, but never built one). It took some time for the concept to come to be accepted in the maritime community.

Ferreiro 01:45, 17 February 2007 (UTC)Dr. Larrie D. Ferreiro