Numerical Modeling of Surface-Piercing Flexible Hydrofoils in Waves

Hydrofoils made of metal alloys were broadly used on high-speed boats in the past. Nowadays, much lighter hydrofoils made of composite materials are finding increasingly more applications on sailing yachts and powerboats. However, these hydrofoils are usually rather flexible, and their design requires computationally demanding analysis, involving hydroelastic calculations. In this study, exploratory high-fidelity simulations have been carried out for surface-piercing hydrofoils in unsteady conditions with help of a computational fluid dynamics solver for fluid flow coupled with a finite element solver for the foil structure. To model unsteady foil deformations, the morphing mesh approach was utilized, and the volume-of-fluid method was applied for multiphase flow simulations. The computational setup, as well as verification and validation study, is described in this paper. Three hydrofoils of different stiffness, including a perfectly rigid foil, were simulated in both calm water conditions and regular head waves. Representative examples of foil deflections and wave patterns, as well as time-dependent structural and hydrodynamic characteristics, are presented. Hydrofoils are efficient lift-generating devices intended for application in water flows. Hydrofoils have streamlined shapes, and when operating at small incidence angles, they can produce high lift forces at relatively low drag, when moving in a certain speed range. Due to this ability, hydrofoils and their derivatives are commonly used as control and propulsive devices, e.g., as rudders, fins, and propeller sections. In the second half of the last century, hydrofoils found broad applications on fast boats, such as passenger ferries and military ships (McLeavy 1976; Matveev & Duncan 2005). These craft were able to achieve high speeds at lift–drag ratios (LDR) around 12–15, significantly higher than LDR of other hulls, such as planing boats. However, due to rather limited favorable operational conditions with regard to speed and payload, popularity of hydrofoils somewhat receded. One of drawbacks was that hydrofoils were usually made of metal alloys, thus being relatively heavy and difficult to service.