Development and performance analysis of a crescent-type sail for WASP applications

Paper in proceeding, 2023

Wind-assisted or pure wind propulsion surely is one of the most promising options to radically reduce carbon emissions from shipping, already today. This study presents the design and evaluation process of a crescent-type sail, from CFD computations towards system-based performance predictions in real-life conditions. CFD computations are used to evaluate the performance of different sail geometries and to optimize the sail parameters, e.g., camber and thickness. The lift and drag coefficients from CFD computations are later used as input to the performance prediction model ShipCLEAN, to perform studies with a real ship, a medium-sized tanker, using its operational data and hindcast weather. Results show the variation of performance of the sail due to changes in the geometry and the achievable energy savings of the ship in its real-life operation. Further, the performance of the crescent-type sail is benchmarked against the performance of Flettner rotors.