Four ships,a twin-propeller naval ship,two single-propeller container ships,and a single-propeller very large crude cartier (VLCC),were studied to investigate the scale effect of the form factor.The viscous flow fields of the ships at different scales were solved numerically via the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes method combined with the shear stress transport k-ω turbulence model.The numerical method was validated through comparisons with experimental data,and numerical uncertainty analysis was carried out based on the ITTC recommended procedure.On this basis,scale effects of the form factor were analyzed using different friction lines,and scale effects of flow fields and the mean axial wake fractions were further analyzed in details.The results showed that the form factor exhibited scale effects when adopting the ITTC-1957 line,and it increased with the increase in the Reynolds number.The scale effect of the form factor reduces the prediction precision of the full-scale ship resistance.The friction line has a significant effect on the form factor.The form factor exhibits little dependence on the Reynolds number when using the numerical friction line or the Katsui line,which is useful for full-scale ship resistance predictions.With the increasing Reynolds number,the boundary layer thickness becomes thinner and the axial velocity contour contracts toward the center plane,and there is nearly a linear relationship between the reciprocal of mean axial wake fraction on propeller disc and Reynolds number in logarithmic scale for the three types of ship forms.