Numerical investigations on Hydrofoil Performance due to Homogeneous Roughness

Abstract

Adding a foil system to catamaran shups, also known as Hydrofoil Supported Catamarans (hysucat), is one method of reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions. By taking advantage of the lifting force of the foil, the implementation of a foil system can efficiently decrease a vessel’s draft and consequently reduce the ship’s resistance. However, continually submerged areas of the ship’s hull will be vulnerable to biofouling. As biofouling grows, the hull becomes rough. As a result of increased frictional resistance, rough surfaces may lower the performance of a system, according to fluid mechanics. This study aims to investigate the impact of foil roughness on its work performance. To achieve this, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) numerical method will be set up with a modified wall function employed for roughness modelling in simulation. The specified roughness height values (ks ) values, which range from 81.25 to 325.00 to 568.75 in µm, represent the general hull roughness. The results reveal that a rough surface may negatively affect the hydrofoil’s operational performance by raising the resistance significantly.