Enhancing comfort and efficiency in high-speed marine craft through active hydrofoil technology: A numerical comparison between foiling and planing hulls

Hydrofoil-supported craft offer a promising alternative to conventional planing hulls, addressing critical limitations regarding seakeeping and hydrodynamic efficiency in rough seas. This study quantifies these performance benefits using a novel hybrid numerical framework that couples mid- and high-fidelity hydrodynamic models within a real-time simulation environment; The framework’s novelty lies in calibrating computationally efficient models with pre-computed high-fidelity data. This approach enables the real-time simulation of complex hydrofoil dynamics in stochastic waves. The investigation compares a standard planing Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat against a retrofitted hydrofoil configuration controlled by a Sliding Mode Controller for active flap actuation. Simulations conducted across a range of irregular sea states demonstrate that the Sliding Mode Controller enables a ‘platforming’ mode, successfully filtering out wave-induced disturbances to maintain a stable flight altitude. This reduces vertical accelerations by an order of magnitude, which extends the ISO 2631-1 safe operational envelope from less than one hour (for the planing hull) to over four hours. Furthermore, in rougher sea states, the foiling configuration achieves a 60/90 % increase in speed and a 40/50 % reduction in fuel consumption relative to the planing baseline, effectively mitigating the speed degradation and increased power demand typically observed in planing hulls. These findings provide a quantitative basis for the adoption of active hydrofoil technology, highlighting its potential to enhance passenger comfort and support decarbonization efforts in high-speed maritime transport.