Experimental study on structure responses of triple wing sails to turbulence flows at multiple apparent wind angles

Paper in proceeding, 2023

Wind-assisted propulsion for ships represented by wingsails is booming in today’s world. The cross-sectional shapes of wingsails are usually NACA profiles without camber, but a recent technology is to use crescent-shaped profiles with camber for remarkably higher aerodynamic lift. Unlike conventional NACA foils, the crescent-shaped foil has not deserved sufficient research regarding its structure responses to turbulence. In this paper, the structures of triple-lined-up crescent-shaped foils are investigated in wind-tunnel (WT) tests a scale on 1:100 compared to the full-size configurations. A wide range of apparent wind angles and wind speeds of interest are studied, to find out the critical angles and the best/worst performance points. Digital Image Correlation (DIC) is used to measure structural vibrations. Spectral analysis of the structural vibrations is performed to understand the coupled effects between the flow and the structures. The results can be used to guide the practical design of wing sails.