Resistance of a marine train

The rationale behind ducklings following their mother to swim in a single-file formation has been unveiled by Yuan et al., shedding light on the phenomenon from the perspective of wave-riding and wave-passing. Drawing inspiration, Zhu et al. explored ships in a single-file configuration and discovered that wave-passing can be achieved with ships maintaining an uniform separation. Figure 1 shows the wave patterns of an optimal ship formation. The waves generated by the leading ship are passed by its trailer, and then identical waves are maintained behind each ship. By repeating this process, the wave energy originating from the leading ship eventually reaches the last trailing ship.