Experimental methods for investigation of foiling crafts

An overview of the most recent experimental and numerical methods performed in the past years at MARIN is presented with respect to the applications of hydrofoil. The objective of the paper is to share some examples of recent investigations and the recommendable path to assist the design of a single hydrofoil and a complete modern hydrofoil craft. Moving from the traditional steady state investigations, the accent is posed on the unsteady dynamic behaviour of the hydrofoils with different level of set-up complexity.

The presented model test campaigns were pilot projects aimed to determine the requirements for the experimental set-up and their executions and to explore the hydrofoil applications from the point of view of unsteady phenomena. Historically most of the research have been focusing mostly on the steady behaviour.

First a brief description of the relevant physical aspects is given, followed by an overview of the possible innovative investigation methods. Integration of numerical and experimental work is considered the key for a successful investigation and design method, therefore first some results are presented for the numerical work carried out in parallel (or before) the experimental ones. For the latter, three model tests campaigns (performed in 2018, 2019 and 2020) are presented as examples.