Stiffness Adjustment of Surface-Piercing Hydrofoils Within Fluid-Structure Interaction

This paper presents results from numerical analysis of the fluid and structure interaction of two different hydrofoil models, Model 1 and Model 2. Analyzes were performed with stainless steel, aluminium and composite materials for Model 1, and Model 2 was created from composite with aluminium reinforcement. Models were analyzed for three different angles of attack (10, 20, 30 degrees) and for each angle three different speeds were tested (2, 4, 6 m/s). At first, the whole set of analysis was run for entirely submerged hydrofoils and later on for immersed hydrofoils to the draft h. Described numerical analysis was performed in order to adjust stiffens of hydrofoils based on different operational loads. Two-way fluid-structure interaction analysis was used which combines FEM and CFD solvers. Presented results are based on 44 analysis with which all planned conditions of hydrofoil operation were tested. Numerical analysis showed a correlation between stiffens of material i.e. structural response and hydrodynamic loading. Besides mentioned, based on analysis of Model 2 future prediction are given in a way of hydrofoil design or particularly placement for hydrofoils reinforcement.