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Numerical Simulation of hydrofoil of the yacht using CFD method
Thesis · July 2020
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.22633.77925
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FEEG6012-MSc RESEARCH PROJECT SCOPING REPORT
Numerical Simulation of hydrofoil of the yacht using CFD method
XiaochenQu
April 2020
1 Introduction
The hydrofoil implemented on the yacht started to be considered a viable technology in leisure
boat industry in the last five years with the exposure of America’s cup(Figure 1). After
Figure 1: American’s cup AC75 Boat
which, self-piercing hydrofoils stood out as a trend by its high-propulsion efficiency and self-
stability while maintaining the fastest speed of around 100 km per hour[2].Stability design and
optimisation of hydrofoil is always a topic in today’s research,hence it is always an ongoing
mission to find an optimum foil section and an optimum wing shape to achieve a best lift-drag
ratio under the foiling or taking off speed.However, few studies are focusing the combination
of latest-shape foil with the effect of free-surface, which is tremendously applied in the real
industry.
When coming into the harmful impact on the wings surface,the majority of previews reports
show the interests in analysing flow cavitation around the foil ,which is seen as a negative impact
on the foils.For example,the study on the simulation of cloud-cavitation and super cavitation
flow on Clark-y hydrofoils conducted by Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in Iran[6],unsteady
flow around the three dimensional twisted foil analyzed by Ji[8].Additionally,one another new
method in 2D mode was introduced by specifying the cavitation number and length separately[14].
Another effect on hydrofoil performance is from ventilation,it appears when the pressure of air is
lower than atmospheric pressure, the wind above the free surface is sucked into the water, which
may induce the foil covered by bubbles.The results above gave the reference on the performance
of hydrofoils, either 2 dimensions or 3 dimensions. Importantly,although multiple methods
are used to tackle various problems above,the simulation environment of turbulence model
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Numerical Simulation of hydrofoil of the yacht using CFD method MSc research project
is always constrained by partial difference Navier-Stokes equation and large-eddy simulation
methods,hence it gives the insight of hydrofoil modelling in turbulence water regardless of the
side-effect of erosion since the cavitation is not an issue especially at the lower speeds[10].
Further description of the feature of governing equation would be clarified hereafter.
2 Literature Review
As have been mentioned above,most previous works are focusing on the flow features around
fully-submerged foil,comparing with the experimental methods which are usually conducted
by fixing the model boat with the dynamometer in towing tank then changing the angle of
attack, speed or any other parameters.That said few studies are modeling the foil performance
in between the flow fractions under the water and above the water surface, known as two-phases
flow.An intriguing design of ventilation fences[4] has been found has the application on surface-
piercing hydrofoil,by using VOF methods to investigate the feature of two-phase flow with and
without the fences armed,the study shows one remarkable feature of the high-speed foiling
movements–as the speed rising, the immersed depth decreases,and the implemented hydrofoils
tend to reach a take off speed.
Again,followed by previous topic, the dominating difference between the fully-immersed and
sub-immersed foils is whether the air-water phase should be considered,rising the questions of
properly choosing the solving condition.Comparing with the single water phase,multi-phase is
much more complicated in terms of the need to precisely mesh on and close to the interface
region.To tackle this problem, one hybrid method called BRICS is introduced by French
national science research centre[11]by Patrick Queutey and Michel Visonneau (2007)to satisfy
the complex needs.The authors managed to develop CFD coding into a specially solving
viscous flow and in particularly,deal with the off-shore flows and wave resistance obstacles.
The simulation strategies and numerical mythologies are specified in article,additionally,the
evaluation of different discretisation methods are compared in specific,by comparing the upwind
or centered discretisation scheme(GDS), a newly developed scheme(CICSAM) which is sophisti-
cated in harvesting the free surface flow using downwind schemes, potentially derived to better
presents the sharpness of the interface,whilst remedies the defect of smear or irregular-oscillation
caused by central or upwind differentiate scheme.
Another methodology to deal with interface problems is multi-face solver MCLS[12], which
is the combination of level set(LS) method, a different second order discretisation method,
and volume of fluid method.It has been proved to successfully converge and accuracy in mass
conservation. which is also based on volume of fuid (VOF)simulation theory and large eddey
simulation(LES) theory.Another VOF based software Open Field Operation and Manipulation
(Openfoam)[6] is also sophisticated at multi-phase problems, it is devoted, but not limited in
the application of cavitation research,but also being widely used into sloshing simulation.[9]
Given the benefits on combining the interactivity between the foil motion and water with tank
sloshing.Both potential flow theory and viscous flow theory are used with ease in this method.
Nowadays,the relevant studies have not only shown an great interest on observation of the flow
character around the hydrofoil, notably with the usage of volume of fluid simulation (VOF)
and large eddy simulation(LES) method, but also make the utilize on the FSI field with the
practice of the same theory.Fliud-structure interaction(FSI) is known as the study on the way
of interface deformation,that is to say,interaction between the two different medias.In contrast
with the hot subjects on ventilation and cavitation,Not too many study is focusing on FSI
deformation,yet it is a vial important feature of thin foils in dynamic flow, especially when
Renolds number is high.Simple fluid-Structure interaction could be solved with ANSYS CFD,
such as the deformation of the wings of the airplane,similarly, the dynamic performance of a
submerged structure could also be affected by the both flow of water and wind.One interesting
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MSc research project Numerical Simulation of hydrofoil of the yacht using CFD method
study on hydrofoil with FSI method[5] are com, another case study of hydrofoil introduces
a new Stress Blended Eddy Simulation(SBES)[15], the hybrid of RANS-NS model to better
modify the shedding water.
Apart from all above,liquid Sloshing is an another extraordinary application of volume of fluid
method,however it still remains as a void relative with the combination of hydrofoil to simulate
the virtual cruising on the sea.According to the present data,a three dimensional sloshing
tank could be simulated by STAR-CCM+ and ANSYS FLuent,another highly-accurate CFD
software FLOW-3D is also available to mimic the dynamic behaviour of water with sloshing
phenomenon in tanks with the non-inertial reference frame model.
3 Aims and Objectives
The main object of this subject is to simulate the single fornt wing of hydrofoil yacht ’The
foilers’[1](Figure 2)by using computational fluid method based with one specific shape of cross
section,to monitor and analyze the performance of sub-immersed surface-piercing hydrofoil
under a real foiling circumstance.
Figure 2: The foilers
NACA has conducted the numerical simulation on typical shapes of airfoils[13] in steady and
uncompressed flow, it also provides the open-source data of arbitrary airfoil shapes.Hence,the
premise of this subject is to select the satisfactory 2D fully-immersed hydrofoil section by
using the data from NACA [3]With the changing of the angle of attack(α=0).The validation of
2D section could be achieved by comparing the numerical results with the published article
by MIT[2], some available resources on simplified 3D hydrofoil are also useful for results
comparison and performance estimation,such as experiment figures of NACA66 foil[7], and
numerical simulation results on Clark-Y foil from the report of MIT[2].
In the mean time,the validation of 3D wedge-shaped foil could be compared by the results
from The foiling model of the of 2020 version[1],The top speed of the foilers could achieve
to 46 miles per hour(20.56m/s),hence simulating one of its patented foil with the different
immersion depth(Figure 3) with reaching the foiling speed is considerable. One of the other
possible validation tool for 3D results is software wavelistl which could be used to observe the
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Numerical Simulation of hydrofoil of the yacht using CFD method MSc research project
free surface deformation.Apart from them, experimental data is also desirable to help verify the
simulation, which could be possibly obtained by technical document from the foilers company.
The aim of this work is to study the effects of waves on the dynamic hydro-elastic response
of a surface-piercing wing model, regardless the side effect from the hull. The simulations are
especially designed to test the hypothesis that flow conditions affect the model response and
hence structural dynamics, which in turn affect the hydrodynamics through fluid–structure
interaction.
Figure 3: hydrofoil
Hence, this project seeks to (a) measure effects of different attacking angle,find the optimum
angle of attack with reference of the lift/drag ratio (on wings under the hydrodynamic and
aerodynamic loading),find out how the flow behaviours,how the pressure and velocity are
distributing along the foil and interpret it with physical principlefor example, the separation
point of flow changes with the AOA(b) observing the effect of ventilation upon model coalescence
(c) Quantify the immersion depth, hopefully observing the dynamic hydro-elastic response of
the wing. The focus is on waves and behaviours of wings, rather than cavitation, as natural (or
atmospheric) ventilation can develop at lower speeds compared to cavitation for surface-piercing
bodies.
4 Methodology
In this study, a computational fluid dynamic program is chosen to solve the turbulence subject.All
behind CFD the coding, low-Reynolds SST k–w model of Menter is chosen(an interface capturing
for free-surface hydrodynamic flow), also k- method is used at fee-surface region.The two
methods mentioned above are two well-known categories of RANS model.The k- model is one of
the most widely used closure models in which two additional equations are solved for variables
k (turbulent kinetic energy) and (turbulent dissipation). This model is complete, in that
these two variables can be manipulated to describe a a turbulent length and time scale. The
assumptions made in using this model are that the two k and transport equations are valid,
and the turbulent viscosity hypothesis, that the Reynolds stresses are proportional to the mean
rate of strain (similar to the Newtonian hypothesis relating stress and strain that is used in the
Navier-Stokes equations). Even though the Navier-Stokes equation is the governing equation
for explaining the flow over the foils,it is still not yet achievable to completely solve it within the
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MSc research project Numerical Simulation of hydrofoil of the yacht using CFD method
time range even with using the superstation. Hence, in this studay, Reynolds-averaged Navier-
Stoked(RANS) methods are recommended to better simulate the imcompressible turbulence
flow,the benefit of which is to make NS equation solved in a reasonable time capsule by averaging
the computing time-step in an idealized condition.Coupled by continuity equation, the CFD
turbulence model hence being constructed.
4.1 Geometry,domain and mesh
Creat the geometry shape based on the dimension of T he foilers(Figure 4),see Figure 5 which is
created and rendered by Rhino, where the cross section and angle of attack are resulting from
the previous study.Import the geometry into FLUENT project,then create the flow domain and
body of influence geometry.Especially note to refine the mesh near the wing area ans split the
domain area into two phases. Finally splitting the wing face ans mesh,check the mesh quality
after refining.
Figure 4: Dimensions of the wing
Figure 5: Hydrofoil rendered from Rhino
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Numerical Simulation of hydrofoil of the yacht using CFD method MSc research project
4.2 Solve setup and Pre-processing
In the pre-setup section,both methematical model and numerical model should be specified
Methematical model (the governing equation, boundary conditions and assumptions contained
within the mathematical model)
In this project the simulation is governed by the continuity Nevier-Stokes and energy equations,using
Reynolds-Averaged version of these equations for turbulent flow.Also,using Spalart-Allmaras
turbulence model to close the Reynold Average equation. Numerical solution process in ANSYS
(the solution strategy by ANSYS)
For the solution of standard 3 dimensional airfoil, it takes around 20minutes to meet convergence,
which means to solve millions of equations to solve the problem.Hence, it would be hours of
running for this project,which is still likely to be achieved.
The pre-processing could roughly be employed by the followings:
Step 1:Choosing the Model
Lauch FLUENT(double precision,parallel processing)
Pressure Based Solver
Models-Energy(turn the energy equation on)
Models-Viscous(select Spalart-Allmaras equation)
Materials(Air:density-ideal gas,viscosity=1.09329-5 lbm/ft3, Water:density,viscosity= 62.4 lbs/ft3)
Setp 2:Setting the Boundary Conditions
Including the pressure, mach numer, angle of attack and temperature etc.
Setp 3:Setting the numerical solution. Employ the numerical simulation of the steady flow
around the hydrofoil.In this part the solution method and options to assist in convergence
should be chosen.Create the monitors and initialize the solution.Finally choose the quantities
expected,for example,pressure coefficient,life coefficient,mach number etc.
Setp 4:Numerical Results: Look at the lift and drag forces on the wing,also life and drag
coefficients on the wing.Create contours and check the boundary layer,create velocity vectors,view
trailing vortices, plot the pressure coefficient,hopefully compare them with experimental data.
4.3 sloshing simulation
In order to simulate the wave in the ocean, a sloshing wave is considered to be created from a
true wind angle(The value of which still need to be decided).The term ’sloshing’ indicates the
change at the surface of liquid occurs due to the external acceleration of the liquid containing
the system.In real life, the induced wave has a multi dimensional acceleration, the tide is
caused by external force–attractive force of the earth;and sloshing is caused by the movement
of hydrofoil which would also affect the hydrofoil motion.The way of post processing of CFD
data of sloshing Behaviour of water need to use the UDF to specify time-dependent gravity,set
up and solve the case using an appropriate solver setting( Assume the rectangular tank is half
filled with liquid water, and the tank has periodically sway).Further discussion about sloshing
model is expected afterwards.
5 Risk Assessment
Effects of coronavirus:The COVID-19 pandemic is posing an unprecedented threat to EU/EEA
countries and the UK, which has been spreading world-widely within past several weeks and
the true dead toll is surging at the end of April,cause so much panic throughout the UK.
In light of the lock-down circumstance, students and staffs are working at home separately
around the world throughout the summer term.All the libraries and common study rooms are
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MSc research project Numerical Simulation of hydrofoil of the yacht using CFD method
forced to close .The condition is,the project is mainly computer-based and requires the access
to school work-stations,the feasibility of 3D simulation with personal computer is severely
challenged,noted that it normally takes up to one day to large-eddy simulation of a refined 2D
turbulent model with VOF method by using computer with CoreTM i7-2600K CPU equipped
with 16 GB memory RAM[6].Based on the past experience, it could also pause the detrimental
effect on the reliability of results and hence affect the quality of final dissertation.In case the
processing time of 3-dimensional hydrofoil would be too long to run on personal computer whose
system is similar to the one mentioned above, a back-up plan is considerable by substituting the
3-dimensional foil by 2-dimensional foil The deadlines of the course works were extended by two
weeks,yet the final deadline of dissertation hasn’t changed,which shortened the time of ongoing
process.All of the above caused the challenge of the effectiveness of learning and progressing
and it is the huge challenge for students’ initiative towards their personal subjects with working
at home.However,given the fact that the direct access to libraries is impossible due to COVID-
19 and social distancing made it difficult to get support from supervisors and negotiate with
classmates,yet schools and teaching teams are working hard and collaborate together to help us
pass through the tough period by setting up the Team meeting, teaching online via Blackboard
and provide the best technical support they can through the media.Faithfully,all of those
difficulties should be concurred eventually and without any doubt.
6 Contingency Plan
As a result of stress from the outbreak of COVID-19, a contingency plan is made in advance
in case the situation is getting worse.Some specific back-up plans were made ahead of time in
accordance with the different changes in situations expected.
6.1 Possible Situation 1
The lock-down term was extended till the end of Summer semester
Super stations are out of access during the outbreak term,which is deemed as the most likely
happened situation. In order to save the computational costs and maintain the relatively
satisfactory of acceptable simulation results,some alternative methods are considered below.
Firstly,simplifying the mesh of 3D hydrofoil could significantly shorten the time cost and make
each running to be reasonably controlled to meet the convergence within several days with
using personal computer.It is also possible to change the wedge-shaped 3D model into 2D to
lower the magnitude of mesh nodes hence shorten the computing time. In order to offset the
quality of dissertation, more analysis could be attempted on fully-submerged 3D foil which has
been modelled previously ,for instance, changing its angle of attack and comparing the results
with existing data.
6.2 Possible Situation 2
Some unforeseen circumstances arise during the modelling/running process
Mesh quality could not meet the standard to converge solution:Among the most difficult
problems which should be tackled to get the decent simulation of the flow across the foil
section, one can list, the precise simulation of the turbulence model, and the deformation
simulation on the interface.Computational domain and mesh should be defined carefully due to
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Numerical Simulation of hydrofoil of the yacht using CFD method MSc research project
the complexity of the geometry shape.In addition,multiple meshing methods mentioned above
could be attempted to get an optimum refined mesh.
The other unexpected problems are also likely to happen as the project process moving on,
and contingency for delays and overruns should be allowed in the initial planning,hence week
21-23 are scheduled to fix the potential errors and to maintain the flexibility of project objectives
by backing-up alternative methods,as the project gantt plan showing below.To better monitor
the process and make sure everything is going smoothly and safely,the subject is scheduled in
weeks by specifying the time duration for each sub-subject.Noted that the currently is at 14th
week, hence the workload ahead of 14th week is accomplished.
8
Gantt Chart
current week 14
PLAN
DURATION PERIODS/week
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 31 32
ACTIVITY PLAN START
04-May
weeks
25-May
18-May
24-Aug
11-May
09-Mar
02-Mar
03-Aug
10-Aug
16-Mar
30-Mar
23-Mar
31-Aug
17-Aug
24-Feb
06-Apr
14-Sep
20-Apr
21-Sep
07-Sep
03-Feb
10-Feb
08-Jun
29-Jun
27-Apr
22-Jun
17-Feb
13-Apr
01-Jun
15-Jun
06-Jul
20-Jul
27-Jul
13-Jul
Pre-learning
Literature Review 03-Feb 30
2D hydrofoil section modelling 02-Mar 1
Sloshing turbulence learning 09-Mar 2
3D fundamental hydrofoil simulation 09-Mar 4
Validation of results and analysis 1
Processing 13-Apr 13
Modelling of The foils and meshing 13-Apr 3
(VOF) 2 phase model scheme 04-May 3
Methodolody review 04-May 7
Free-surface process 25-May 4
Error fixing and programme running 22-Jun 3
Dissertation 13-Jul 11
Draft Project 13-Jul 7
Power point making 31-Aug 1
Correction of dissertation 14-Feb 2
Final dissertationtion 21-Sep
Numerical Simulation of hydrofoil of the yacht using CFD method MSc research project
References
[1] The foilers. https://foiler.com/.
[2] Ofer Aharon. 2.094 - Term Project - Hydrofoil analysis using CFD. Department of
Mechanical Engineering,Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012.
[3] Ofer Aharon. Hydrofoil analysis using CFD. National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics. Langley Aeronautical Lab.; Langley Field, VA, United States, 2012.
[4] Božidar Basic Josip & Blagojević Branko Andrun, Martina & Šarić. CFD Analysis of
Surface-Piercing Hydrofoil Ventilation Inception. 2016.
[5] J. Yan A. Korobenko J. Czarnowski G. Ketterman Augier, B. and Y. Bazilevs.
Experimental and numerical FSI study of compliant hydrofoils. Computational Mechanics
55.6 (2014): 1079-1090.
[6] Mahmood Passandideh-Fard Ehsan Roohi, Amir Pouyan Zahiri. Numerical simulation
of cavitation around a two-dimensional hydrofoil using VOF method and LES turbulence
model. CApplied Mathematical Modelling, 2012.
[7] K Miyagawa X W Luo-Y L Wu Ji, B and H Y Xu. Numerical analysis of unsteady cavitation
shedding dynamics around NACA66 hydrofoil by large-eddy simulation. Materials Science
and Engineering 52.6 (2013)7.
[8] Xianwu Luo Yulin Wu Ji, Bin and Kazuyoshi Miyagawa. Numerical investigation of
three-dimensional cavitation evolution and excited pressure fluctuations around a twisted
hydrofoil. Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 28.7 (2014): 2659-2668, 2014.
[9] Zhu R. Miao G. et al Li, Y. Simulation of Tank Sloshing Based on Openfoam and Coupling
with Ship Motions in Time Domain. J Hydrodyn 24, 450–457 (2012).
[10] Miles & Xing Tao Matveev, Konstantin & Wheeler. Numerical simulation of air ventilation
and its suppression on inclined surface-piercing hydrofoils. Ocean Engineering. 175. 251-
261. 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2019.02.040.
[11] Michel Queutey, Patrick & Visonneau. An Interface Capturing Method for Free-Surface
Hydrodynamic Flows. Computers &Fluids.36.1481-1510.10.1016/j.compfluid.2006.11.007.
[12] D. R. Heul Raees, F. and C. Vuik. A mass-conserving level-set method for simulation of
multiphase flow in geometrically complicated domains. International Journal for Numerical
Methods in Fluids 81.7 (2016): 399-425.
[13] T.Theodorsen. Theory of Wing Sections of Arbitrary Shape. National Advisory Committee
for Aeronautics Washington,D.C., 1931.
[14] Chunyu Guo Xin Chang Sheng Huang Wang, Chao and Pusun Cao. Analysis of cavitation
performance of a 2-D hydrofoil based on mixed-iterative method. Journal of Marine Science
and Application 12.1 (2013): 52-5.
[15] D Štefan V Habán Čupr, P and P Rudolf. FSI analysis of francis-99 hydrofoil employing
SBES model to adequately predict vortex shedding. Journal of Physics: Conference Series
1296.1 (2019)14.
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