Airfoil or Sail Design Analysis and Optimization

While many highly capable airfoil design tools are currently available, cases still arise that require a complete RANS simulation.  If lift is to be maximized at the expense of drag, for example, designs with multiple components or non-trivial levels of separation can result.  Optimizing performance within a given planform area or storage volume can also lead to geometries requiring RANS for the accurate prediction of lift and drag.  Marine hydrofoil design can also require full RANS simulations because of the presence of water jet inlets or outlets, cavitation, or marine fouling. 

An extreme example of just how complex airfoil design problem can get is yacht sails.   Sails are highly three-dimensional plan forms with very large amounts of camber.  They are very thin, and yet have bluff (almost circular) leading edges.  Sail analysis therefore requires three-dimensional RANS simulations able to resolve leading edge separation, reattachment, stall, non-uniform inflow, and interacting vortex wakes.  Optimization can only be performed when huge numbers of RANS simulations are performed, so AFT’s ability to combine RANS accuracy with numerical efficiency makes us uniquely qualified. 

Click on a menu item at left to view cases where AFT has utilized RANS capabilities to assist airfoil design problems.