Comparison of Microbubble and Air Layer Injection with Porous Media for Drag Reduction on a Self-propelled Barge Ship Model

Ship resistance issues are related to fuel economy, speed, and cost efficiency. Air lubrication is a promising technique for lowering hull frictional resistance as it is supposed to modify the energy in the turbulent boundary layer and thereby reduce hull friction. In this paper, the objective is to identify the optimum type of air lubrication using microbubble drag reduction (MBDR) and air layer drag reduction (ALDR) techniques to reduce the resistance of a 56-m Indonesian self-propelled barge (SPB). A model with the following dimensions was constructed: length L = 2000 mm, breadth B = 521.60 mm, and draft T = 52.50 mm. The ship model was towed using standard towing tank experimental parameters. The speed was varied over the Froude number range 0.11–0.31. The air layer flow rate was varied at 80, 85, and 90 standard liters per minute (SLPM) and the microbubble injection coefficient over the range 0.20–0.60. The results show that the ship model using the air layer had the highest drag reduction up to a maximum of 90%. Based on the characteristics of the SPB, which operates at low speed, the optimum air lubrication type to reduce resistance in this instance is ALDR.