A fast and robust approach to compute nonlinear Fluid-Structure Interactions on yacht sails – Application to a semi-rigid composite mainsail

Efficient jib-mainsail fluid-structure interaction modelling – Validations with semi-rigid sails experiments

“…Compared with a previous work [5], where only the mainsail was considered, the present study is extended to account for the jib. In this work, the mast is still considered rigid and we assume that the FSI problem has a steady solution, which allows to couple flow and structural solvers with a quasi-static approach.…”

“…Using the Lifting Line Theory (LLT) and similarly to Sacher et al [5] the two sails are modelled as a single straight lifting line and an associated vortex sheet. The main difference with [5] is that here the sections are composite, as being made up of two sub-sections: one for the jib and one for the mainsail.…”

“…The FSI computation approach of the present paper follows a strategy very similar to the work of Sacher et al [5]. However, the method is extended to the flow solver part.…”

“…The structural and flow solvers, respectively FEM and Lifting-Line Theory (LLT), are the same, considering a steady solution of the nonlinear FSI problem. The LLT model from the Prandtl [6] theory is applied as in [5], but pressure fields are now computed using the Discrete Vortex Method (DVM) from Katz and Plotkin [7]. The structural solver part of, the presented method is performed using Abaqus™ 2017 finite element software.…”

“…The structural solver part of, the presented method is performed using Abaqus™ 2017 finite element software. As in [5], a quasistatic approach is involved with a dynamic backward Euler scheme [8] to improve the convergence robustness using a standard Newton-Raphson method. The mainsail membrane and the reinforcements are modelled with shell elements, battens are modelled with stringers elements connected to shell nodes.…”