A Simple Economic Design Strategy for Passenger Hovercrafts and Its Control Algorithm

Document Type : Original Article

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Alexandria University, faculty of Engineering.

Abstract

Abstract:
Passenger hovercrafts present an attractive traveling choice. This is especially true for
countries, like Egypt, which rely on tourism as a primary source of income. However,
their widespread (and even existence) in many countries is limited due to the high cost
as well as the sophisticated technological requirements of the hovercraft design process.
These include the expensive prototype model which should be constructed to assess and
validate the design calculations as well as the costs involved in constructing the
hovercraft and operating it. Moreover, a careful control algorithm is needed to enhance
the seakeeping performance of the hovercraft to assure passengers comfort and avoid
sea-sickness. In the present paper a simple low cost design approach is proposed and
implemented. The proposed strategy has been used to design a hovercraft traveling
between Ras Mohammad and Khaleeg Neama in Sharm Elsheikh in Egypt. The
proposed model building strategy successfully produces simple cheap prototype models
without compromising the accuracy of the design assessment based on them.

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