Scientific Methods in Yacht Design
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Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. 1990. 22: 349-85 TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITE1 Copyright (CD 1990 by Annual Reviews Inc. All rights reserved Laboratorium voor Scheepahydrornechanica Archief Makelweg 2, 2628 CD Delft 1OL. 015 - man- Fax: 015- 781 eaS SCIENTIFIC METHODS IN YACHT DESIGN Lars Larsson SSPA Maritime Consulting, P.O. Box 24001, S-400 22 Gothenburg, Sweden, and Chalmers University of Technology, Department of Marine Hydrodynamics, S-41296 Gothenburg, Sweden INTRODUCTION One of the most remarkable achievements in the history of sport was the victory of the Australian yacht Australia II in the 1983 America's Cup races. The cup, brought to the US from England in 1851 after the victory of the yacht America, had since then been successfully defended 24 times, and was considered permanently bolted to its table in the New York Yacht Club. American technology and financial resources, combined with the skill and experience of some of the most well-known yachtsmen in the world, had always been an insurmountable obstacle to challengers from different countries. From a scientific point of view the victory of Australia II is of special interest, since the successful outcome of the races was, to a very large extent, the result of a strong technological effort (see van Oossanen 1985). The hull and, particularly, the keel represented radical departures from the traditional design of the 12-m America's Cup yachts. Before the breakthrough in 1983 the evolution of the 12-m class had almost ceased, and there was widespread opinion among designers that the optimum design had been reached. Furthermore, due to some notable failures in the early 1970s, confidence in yacht research, and tank testing in particular, was very low. After the 1983 races interest was boosted, not only in the Cup itself but also in yacht research and development. It had become 'Twelve meters is the rating of the yacht according to the International R-rule. The real overall length is about 20 m. Yachts of the 12-m class were used in the America's Cup between 1958 and 1987. 349 0066-4189/90/0115-0349$02.00 350 LARSSON obvious to everyone in the yacht-design community that much prac- tical information could be obtained from the application of scientific methods, and that there was still room for improvement in the 12-m class design. In the 1987 campaign most participating syndicates spent large efforts on tank testing and numerical flow calculations. This was particularly true of the US syndicate Sail America, whose leading spokesman, Dennis Connor, had lost the Cup as skipper of Liberty in 1983. More than 30 naval architects, engineers, and scientists were engaged in the development of the new yacht, and after a very successful campaign Connor was able to bring the Cup back to the US in February 1987. What is interesting in this effort, from a scientific point of view, is that most of the work has been published (see Salvesen 1987, Chance 1987, Letcher et al. 1987a,b, Letcher & McCurdy 1987, Oliver et al. 1987, Boppe et al. 1987, Scragg et al. 1987). Not much has been reported from other US syndicates, although some informationabout the research in the America II and Heart of America campaigns has been released (see Xia & Larsson 1986, van Hem- men 1986, Larsson 1987). Experiences from testingseveral of the non-US challengers have been collected in two papers on keels by van Oossanen & Joubert (1986) and van Oossanen (1987), and some infolination on the Australian efforts is given in the papers by Cox & Whitaker (1987) and Klaka & Penrose (1987). Experiences from the design of the first fiberglass 12-m yachts, KZ 3 and 5 from New Zealand, are reported by Bowler & Honey (1987). Although the America's Cup has been the source of much recent yacht research, important developments have taken place over the years at insti- tutions not linked to the Cup. The most comprehensive collection of papers on yacht research may be found inthe transactions from several series of symposia on the subject held regularly in the US and the Netherlands. The Chesapeake Sailing Yacht Symposium is held biannually on the US East Coast, and the AIAA Symposium on the Aero/Hydronautics of Sailing is an annual event on the West Coast.Recently, another series, the Tampa Bay Sailing Yacht Symposium, was started in Florida. The Dutch Sym- posium on Developments of Interest in Yacht Architecture is held in Amsterdam biannually. Several decades of yacht research at Southampton University are reported in the excellent books by Marchaj (1979, 1982, 1986), which deal with the fundamental aspects of sailing in a very clear and concise manner. Other books on the same topic are those by Kay (1971), Hammitt (1975), and Gutelle (1984). A book on the principles of yacht design by Joubert & Larsson (1990) is about to be published. There are two different disciplines that must be mastered by the suc- cessful yacht designer: fluid mechanics and structural mechanics. Bearing SCIENTIFIC METHODS IN YACHT DESIGN 351 this in mind, it may seem surprising that the vast majority of papers on yacht research deal with only the first area. An important reason for this unbalance may be the 12-m rule, which prohibits exotic materials and specifies robust scantlings. There has been no room for advanced structural optimization. While the fluid mechanics of sailing includes both aero- and hydro- dynamics, the emphasis of this review is on the latter. This is the area where most of the development has taken place in recent years. Readers interested in sailing aerodynamics are referred to Marchaj (1977, 1979), Milgram (1968, 1971a,b,c, 1972, 1978), Thrasher et al. (1979), Wiersma (1977, 1978, 1979a,b) and Register & Irey (1983). Today, hydrodynamic data for a hull can be obtained either by improved techniques for tank testing or by means of numerical methods. In either case a computer program is requiredfor predicting the performance of the yacht, given the hydrodynamic input. In fact, the program may itself generate such data from semiempirical formulas. The results will be less accurate, but a large number of alternatives may be evaluated in a very short time. This type of program, called VPP (Velocity Prediction Program), is now a most important tool for top yacht designers. In the next section the VPP theory is outlined and some examples of applications are given. Recent developments in the tank testingtechniques are described thereafter, and in the final section the results of application of com- putational fluid dynamics (CFD) are reported. VELOCITY PREDICTION PROGRAMS Davidson (1936), more than 50 years ago, proposed a method for predicting the close-hauled (upwind) performance of sailing yachts from towing-tank data. Using full-scale measurements on board the yacht Gim- crack, he was able to derive a set of sail coefficients, which has been in use at many towing tanks until recently (Murdey1978). A more general evaluation procedure was, however, proposed by Herreshoff (1964), enabling predictions of all points of sailing to be made. Methods for predicting performance without access to towing-tank data appeared in the mid-1970s (see Myers 1975, Letcher 1974, 1975a, 1976. Dawson 1976, Curtiss 1977). A few years later, van Oossanen (1979) presented a method especially designed for 12-m yachts. The real break- through of the VPPs did not appear, however, until the early 1980s as a result of the H. Irving Pratt project at Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology (Kerwin & Newman 1979). The purpose of the project was to improve the handicap rules for sailing yachts. A VPP was developed, which has since become the basis for the American Measurement Handicapping 352 LARSSON System (MHS) and, more recently, for the International Measurement System (IMS) (see Poor 1986, Kirkman 1987). In the development of the 12-m yachts for the 1987 America's Cup the VPPs playeda very important role, as explained by Oliver et al. (1987) and van Hemmen (1986). For the special Cup in 1988, where a catamaran competed againsta monohull, performance predictions must have been even more important, and since a new rule has now been adopted for the America's Cup, VPPs will continue to be imperative as a tool for the designer. Structure of the VPP Until recently, all velocity prediction programs have been based on the equations for static equilibrium. The essence of suchprograms is thus a method for satisfying the equilibrium equations (although usually not in all six degrees of freedom). To accomplish this, info' illation is required about the hydrodynamic, aerodynamic, and stability properties of the yacht (see Figure 1). The output of the program is the yacht perfoithance under varying wind conditions. As can be seen in Figure 1, the info' 'nation required can be obtained in a variety of ways. Static stability calculations are usually carried out by the designer, and some empirical correction for the effect of forward speed is added in the program. Accurate aerodynamic data are more difficult to find. While it would be possible to obtain such data from either experiments Empirical a and c very data rare Wind tunnel Aerodynamic c Numerical results model results Stability Solution of Speed model equilibrium Heel equalions Leeway et Towing tank Hydrodynamic Numerical results model results Empirical Either one of d - f data can be used Figure 1VPPstructure. SCIENTIFIC METHODS IN YACHT DESIGN 353 or numerical calculations, this is seldom done owing to the high cost involved. Instead, standard aerodynamic coefficientsare used. The hydro- dynamic input may be obtained from three different sources: towing-tank results, numerical predictions, or semiempirical relations. In the lattercase the hydrodynamic coefficients are computed by the VPP itself, andvery rapid evaluations of design alternatives may be made.