Predicting the performance of a sail design is important for optimising the performance of a yacht, and Velocity Prediction Programs (VPPs) are commonly used for this purpose. The aerodynamic force data for a VPP is often calculated using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models, but these can be computationally expensive. A full VPP analysis for sail design is therefore usually restricted to high-budget design projects or research activities and is not practical for many industry projects. This work presents a method to reduce the computational cost of creating lift and drag force coefficient curves for input into a VPP using both multi-fidelity kriging surrogate modelling and data from existing sail designs. This method is shown to reduce the number of CFD simulations required for a desired accuracy when compared to a single-fidelity model. A maximum reduction in the required computational effort of 57% was achieved for model-scale symmetric spinnaker sails. For the same number of simulations, the accuracy of the model predictions was improved by up to 72% for scale-symmetric spinnaker sails, and 90% for asymmetric spinnakers.
International audienceThis paper investigates the use of Gaussian processes to solve sail trimming optimization problems. The Gaussian process, used to model the dependence of the performance with the trimming parameters, is constructed from a limited number of performance estimations at carefully selected trimming points, potentially enabling the optimization of complex sail systems with multiple trimming parameters. The proposed approach is tested on a two-parameter trimming for a scaled IMOCA mainsail in upwind sailing conditions. We focus on the robustness of the proposed approach and study especially the sensitivity of the results to noise and model error in the point estimations of the performance. In particular, we contrast the optimization performed on a real physical model set in a wind tunnel with a fully non-linear numerical fluid structure interaction model of the same experiments. For this problem with a limited number of trimming parameters , the numerical optimization was affordable and found to require a comparable amount of performance estimation as for the experimental case. The results reveal a satisfactory agreement for the numerical and experimental optimal trimming parameters, considering the inherent sources of errors and uncertainties in both numerical and experimental approaches. Sensitivity analyses have been eventually performed in the numerical optimization problem to determine the dominant source of uncertainties and characterize the robustness of the optima
A numerical investigation of the dynamic Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) of a yacht sail plan submitted to harmonic pitching is presented to analyse the system's dynamic behaviour and the effects of motion simplifications and rigging adjustments on aerodynamic forces. It is shown that the dynamic behaviour of a sail plan subject to yacht motion clearly deviates from the quasi-steady theory. The aerodynamic forces presented as a function of the instantaneous apparent wind angle show hysteresis loops. It is shown that the hysteresis phenomenon dissipates some energy and that the dissipated energy increases strongly with the pitching reduced frequency and amplitude. The effect of reducing the real pitching motion to a simpler surge motion is investigated. Results show significant discrepancies with underestimated aerodynamic forces and no more hysteresis when a surge motion is considered. However, the superposition assumption consisting in a decomposition of the surge into two translations normal and collinear to the apparent wind is
This work presents a wind tunnel experimental study on the effect of the leading edge flapping on the aerodynamic performance of a spinnaker. Four J80-class spinnaker models, combining two different assembling structures (panel layout) and two different sail materials are tested at various wind speeds and wind angles in a wind tunnel. Results show that, for the wind angle range the spinnaker is designed for, the sustained periodic flapping of the sail leading edge has a significant benefit on performance, with 10% increase in drive force. In these model-scale tests, the sail structural properties did not show significant differences in performance, but affect the point where flapping sets in: a model with a stiffer material and a cross-cut panel layout starts flapping for a longer sheet length, compared to a lighter cloth and a tri-radial layout. Finally, it is shown that the nondimensional flapping frequency is rather constant 0.4 in the design range of wind angle, but it varies with the wind speed and sail structural properties on a smaller wind angle where the spinnaker is more stretched.
a b s t r a c tThis work presents a full-scale experimental study of a yacht rig and sails in real upwind sailing conditions and a comparison with Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) simulations with the ARAVANTI model (Finite Element Method for the structure and Vortex Lattice Method for the fluid). A specific on-board instrumentation system simultaneously measures loads in the rig and sails, sailing data (wind, boat attitude and speed) and the shape of sails in real navigation conditions (flying shape). Flying shape parameters are extracted using the camera-based VSPARS system to characterize the effects of sail trims and to be compared with the results of the simulation. The potential flow solver gives fast and accurate predictions of both the flying shape and the loads in the rig in most conditions. The inviscid approach, commonly used in the early stage of design, must be checked, as in particular cases where the sails are heavily loaded, flow separation is significant and results from a potential flow solver are inaccurate. A new version of the model including the heel angle as an additional degree of freedom in the structural solver enables to detect when the inviscid flow approach overestimates the aerodynamic load. This upgrade improves the utility and reliability of the inviscid flow approach which remains relevant at the early stages of design as it is much more cost-effective than RANS models.
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