This blog post by Bill Meade describes a fascinating metaphor for GTD – the bulbous bow on large ships. This bow shape modifies the way the water flows around the hull, to reduce drag and increase speed and efficiency.
I saw this great article on bulbous bowed ships a month or so ago. The key illustration in the article is of the natural bow wave of displacement hulls (green below), the bow wave of the submerged bulbous bow (blue line) and the resultant combined wave (red line).
Bulbous bows reduce the drag on ships. The energy savings can be huge, like 500%. Since reading the article, I haven’t been able to stop reflecting on how GTD reduces drag … like a bulbous bow. Wait, stay with me now! And, I’ve been exploring analogies between how GTD works and how bulbous bows work.
Click here to read more.