Optimization of 3D Hydrofoil Using a Cavitating Lifting Line Method

Abstract

Cavitation is a complex phenomenon that inevitably takes place in high-speed foiling. As such, designing a hydrofoil specifically for supercavitation is mandatory when striving for high speeds, but doing so with common engineering tools is slow and inefficient. To achieve the World Sailing Speed Record, Syroco and Cubit had to research more advanced and faster tools to design the most efficient foil for the sailboat that will be used for the world record. Said tools were developed over a long collaborative research, during which many different approaches to simulate supercavitating hydrofoils with Finite Volume Methods (FVM) have been tested, leading to an innovative optimization procedure to find the best 2D section with a compromise between hydrodynamic and structural properties. Performing a 3D optimization using FVM was quickly