What is a ship's bulb and why does a ship need it

  • Dec 14, 2020
What is a ship's bulb and why does a ship need it
What is a ship's bulb and why does a ship need it

Surely at least once in a movie or in reality, every person has seen a strange protruding object on the bow of the ship, located below the waterline. This "device" is called a bulb and has a very important function. It's time to learn a lot more about this element of the ships of construction, as well as about the history of its appearance and introduction to the fleet.

An important structural element. | Photo: livejournal.com.
An important structural element. | Photo: livejournal.com.

As the ship moves, its bow pushes the water in front of it, creating waves of positive amplitude. Because of them, a zone of increased pressure forms at the front of the vessel, which begins to press on the entire structure of the vehicle, thereby reducing its speed and maneuverability. And most importantly, the pressure that the waves put on the bow of the vessel significantly increases the consumption of precious fuel. To solve all these problems, a mysterious teardrop-shaped seal in the bow of the ship, which is called a bulb, is needed.

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Increases speed. | Photo: balt-lloyd.ru.

Interesting fact: the word "bulb" comes from the French "bulbe" or "onion" and refers to the bulge at the end of something. You can see bulbs not only on ships, but also on various beams, columns, trusses (in the meaning of the core system) and much more.

There are also beams. | Photo: vintag.es.

Most often, the bulb is hidden under the surface of the water. The point is that it allows the wave to create negative amplitudes, which by the fact of their appearance neutralize the negative effect of waves with a positive amplitude. However, all this makes sense only on certain ships, as a rule, with a hull length at the waterline of at least 15 meters. In addition, the vessel should be fast enough by default (from 25 knots). As a result, the bulb allows you to increase the travel speed by a few more knots, and most importantly, it reduces fuel consumption by 10-15 percent.

READ ALSO: "VVA": the strangest plane that was created by Soviet engineers

Sometimes seals climb on them. | Photo: pikabu.ru.

This structural element was invented by American shipbuilders, specifically by engineer David Watson Taylor. The bulb was first installed on the battleship Delaver in 1910. For the first time on a civilian ship, the bulb appeared in 1920 at the Bremen liner. It is noteworthy that for a long time this structural element did not receive wide distribution. It began to be used everywhere only after the widespread introduction of computer modeling and calculation methods into the industry.

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It was not widely used for a long time. | Photo: wikimedia.org.

If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about why do not containers fall from transport ships.
A source:
https://novate.ru/blogs/140320/53789/