Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Hydrodynamic Characteristics of Deformable Hydrofoils

摘要

The present paper is concerned with the numerical and experimental investigation of the hydroelastic behavior of a deformable hydrofoil in a uniform flow. The study is developed within the general framework of marine structure design and sizing. An experimental setup is developed in the IRENav hydrodynamic tunnel in which a cambered rectangular hydrofoil is mounted. An image-processing device enables the visualization of the foil displacement. As for the numerical part, the structure problem is solved with the finite element method, while the fluid problem is solved with the finite volume method using two distinct numerical codes that are coupled through an iterative algorithm based on the exchange of the boundary conditions at the fluid-structure interface. Results obtained from the coupled fluid-structure computations including deformation and hydrodynamic coefficients are presented. The influence of the fluid-structure coupling is evaluated through comparisons with "noncoupled" simulations. The numerical simulations are in very good agreement with the experimental results and highlight the importance of the fluid-structure coupling consideration. Particular attention is paid to the pressure distribution modification on the hydrofoil as a result of deformations that can lead to an advance of the cavitation inception, which is of paramount importance for naval applications.