Numerical and Experimental Studies of Sail Aerodynamics

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was the determination of the aerodynamic performance of sails and gain knowledge of the phenomena involved in order to improve the aerodynamic characteristics. In this research, the airflow around different sails in four scenarios was studied.The method to analyze these scenarios was the combination of numerical simulations and experimental tests by taking advantage of the best of each tool. Two different Computational Fluid Dynamic codes were utilized: the ANSYS-CFX and the CD-Adapco's STAR-CCM+. The experimental tests were conducted in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel at the Universidad de Granada (Spain), the Twisted Flow Wind Tunnel at the University of Auckland (New Zealand

Design of a generalized tool for the performance assessment under sail based on analytical, numerical and empirical results : a global sailing yacht meta-model

“…When testing sails, due to the nature of their construction, a number of other factors are influenced by the scale relative to the air speed. P. Izaguirre provides in her PhD thesis (33) the following clear and descriptive list:…”