Hydrodynamic Performance of the 3D Hydrofoil at the Coupled Oscillating Heave and Pitch Motions

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to study on the power extraction of the hydrofoil by performance of the coupled oscillating heave and pitch motions. The numerical analysis is conducted by using the Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations and the realizable k- ɛ turbulent model of the Star-CCM+ software. A 3D oscillating hydrofoil of NACA0015 section with aspect ratio of 7 is selected for the present analysis at two inflow velocities and three frequencies. The numerical results of lift and drag coefficients, horizontal and vertical forces coefficients, power efficiency in time domain and average value of those parameters are presented and discussed. According to the numerical results, the high efficiency of hydrofoil is found at the reduced frequency of 0.18 and the flow velocity of 1 m/s and the low efficiency is obtained at the reduction frequency of 0.06 and the flow velocity of 2 m/s. Moreover, the contour results of vorticity, streamline and pressure distribution are also presented and discussed. The computational model depicts clear vortex patterns surrounding the hydrofoil, which has a major impact on the power performance of oscillating hydrofoil.