NUMERICAL STUDY OF SAIL AERODYNAMICS

A boundary-element method to compute steady flows around a set of sail s at close hauled conditions (i.e., the wind is coming from upstream o f the boat at a moderate angle of attack Sor the sails) is presented I t is based on a mixed potential-velocity formulation in order to solve the problem of zero thickness sail conditions. Art iterative procedur e is Proposed to account for the interaction between sails; the shape of the wake of the lending sail is computed as an equilibrium stream s urface in such a way that the plane wake assumption is not used. Numer ical results are compared with tests conducted on isolated jibs and se ts of jib and main sails in wind tunnels.