Numerical study of a flexible sail plan : effect of pitching decomposition and adjustments

Abstract

A numerical investigation of the dynamic Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) of a yacht sail plan submitted to harmonic pitching is presented to analyse the effects of motion simplifications and rigging adjustments on aerodynamic forces. It is shown that the dynamic behaviour of a sail plan subject to yacht motion clearly deviates from the quasi-steady theory. The aerodynamic forces presented as a function of the instantaneous apparent wind angle show hysteresis loops. These hysteresis phenomena do not result from a simple phase shift between forces and motion. Plotting the hysteresis loops in the appropriate coordinate system enables the associated energy to be determined. This amount of exchanged energy is shown to increase almost linearly with the pitching reduced frequency and to increase almost quadratically with the pitching amplitude in the investigated ranges. The effect of reducing the real pitching motion to a simpler surge motion is investigated. Results show significant discrepancies on the aerodynamic forces amplitude and the hysteresis phenomenon between pitching and surge motion. However, the superposition assumption consisting in a decomposition of the surge into two translations normal and collinear to the apparent wind is verified. Then, simulations with different dock tunes and backstay loads highlight the importance of rig adjustments on the aerodynamic forces and the dynamic behaviour of a sail plan.