Objectives  In order to obtain a good hull form with both static water and wave resistance performance, a bulk carrier is taken as the research object to carry out the comprehensive optimization design of the hull form.

  Methods  The evaluation of the static water resistance performance of the target ship is based on the mature commercial software STAR-CCM+. In addition to the simplified method and empirical method recommended by ISO 15016, the two-dimensional strip theory method programmed by the authors is also used to calculate the wave resistance. A comparative analysis of the differences between the calculated results of different wave added resistance calculation methods and the model test results is then performed.

  Results  The results show that the calculated results of the two-dimensional strip theory method have high accuracy and can reflect the influence of ship hull form on wave added resistance; the static water resistance performance of the optimized lines of the target ship is equivalent to that of the prototype, and the wave added resistance performance of the optimized lines can be reduced by more than 20% compared with the prototype, which indicates that the resistance performance in waves is significantly improved.

  Conclusions  The engineering applicability of different wave added resistance calculation methods is discussed in this paper, providing effective tools for the comprehensive optimization design of ship hull form.