A bilge keel is a pair of long fin-like projections fitted along the turn of a ship's hull, below the waterline on either side, to reduce the vessel's tendency to roll in waves. British naval engineer William Froude, known for his pioneering research into ship hull resistance and stability, studied and helped develop the bilge keel for the Royal Navy during the 1870s as a way to steady ships without the drag penalty of a deeper keel. Bilge keels remain a common, relatively simple and inexpensive way to improve a ship's stability and are fitted to many merchant and naval vessels today.
Facts
Partially Attested
Year1880 is the launch of the first ship equipped with bilge keels (SS Parisian), a first-use date. SignificancePassive stability device that reduces a ship's tendency to roll, with little impact on internal ship arrangements. 1 FAQs
Do bilge keels have to be long and shallow?
Deep and short keels have been used on newer cargo ships.
No. Most commercial cargo ships carry long, narrow bilge keels along both sides below the waterline, but the Wallenius Sol shipping line describes a different arrangement for its newer roll-on roll-off ships: high aspect ratio bilge keels that are deeper but shorter than regular ones. Compared with conventional solutions they are around three times as deep but only half as long. Calculations and model measurements at the SSPA research facility in Gothenburg showed excellent roll damping with only a marginal increase in hydrodynamic drag, and the keels were designed to withstand the stresses of winter ice.
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Source Bilge keel - Wikipedia
Sources
1. Bilge keel - Wikipedia
History
The first ship to be equipped with bilge keels was SS Parisian, which was launched in Scotland in 1880.
Intro, sentence 1
a nautical device used to reduce a ship's tendency to roll
In Field: Marine Engineering, Categories
Watercraft components
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