NUMERICAL STUDY FOR THE DESIGN OF EXPERIMENTS ON THE INTERACTION OF TIP VORTICES IN WATER WITH BOUNDED SURFACES

The evolution of tip vortices in water and their interactions with interfaces is of importance for the optimization of hydrofoil propulsion.. To investigate this specific issue, an experimental campaign has been designed, as part of the Nausica project, (funded by the Italian government, id code ARS01_00334 extended project title NAvi efficienti tramite l’Utilizzo di Soluzioni tecnologiche Innovative e low CArbon”) on the basis of numerical simulations. In this paper the results of some numerical simulations executed to identify the evolution in space and time of wing-tip vortices are described. A set of numerical simulations has been run, reproducing a NACA0015 profile with different angles of attack and different distances from the hull, using a three-dimensional transient laminar and viscous model. The evolution in space of the trailing vortices has been analyzed, showing that the vortex-center position evolves in space and time, being affected by vortical structures generated at the wall boundaries. Despite these instabilities, the vortex is persistent and its center remains in a window with size 200mm×100mm.