Simulation of the interaction between the dynamics of an Olympic rowing boat and the fluid flow
Author(s):
Duren, Umut
Title:
Simulation of the interaction between the dynamics of an Olympic rowing boat and the fluid flow
Date:
Friday 1st June 2007
Advisor:
Formaggia, L.
Advisor II:
Falzon, B.
Co-advisor:
Mola, A.
Abstract:
A study of the fluid flow around an Olympic rowing boat was performed using the
commercial CFD package Comet 2.00 and the forces on the boat surface extracted. The grid
generation of the boat and its computational domain was performed using the commercial
pro-AM (professional Auto Mesh) software.
Three degrees of grid refinements for the same boat were produced, one of a minimal
refinement, the second of an extra vertical refinement on the boat surface of the minimally
refined grid, and one of an extra horizontal refinement on the boat surface of the vertically
refined grid. The three refinements were tested in a stationary form with fluid passing by (as
the model was in the reference frame of the boat), under an imposed heaving motion, under
an imposed pitching motion and then finally the boat was set free to settle to its actual sink
level under the influence of the forces experienced from the surrounding fluids. The viscous
drag and lift, pressure drag and lift, and momentum force values were obtained for the boat
during each of the simulations and the relative accuracies of the grids were compared.
The vertically refined grid was found to have produced results to a much higher degree of
accuracy than the minimally refined grid for most the simulations performed at relatively
small increases in computation times. The lack of a need for an extra refinement in the
horizontal direction on the boat surface as in the fully refined grid was also demonstrated in
most test cases.