Recent advances in sailing yacht aerodynamics

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

The analysis of sailing yacht aerodynamics has changed dramatically over the last 15 years and has enabled significant advances in performance prediction. For instance, the growth of Computational Fluid Dynamics has significantly changed the way high performance sails are designed. Three-dimensional mathematical models of fully rigged sail plans, and the visualisation of the turbulent unsteady flow pattern around them, are now quite common whereas ten years ago such a simulation would have been very rare, and twenty years ago impossible. The parallel development of optimisation techniques has resulted in new sail and yacht design methods. Changes in the experimental techniques have been as dramatic as in the numerical techniques. The introduction of the Twisted Flow Device, the Real-Time Velocity Prediction Program and the most recent pressure measurements, has allowed a step change in the potentialities of experimental sail aerodynamics. This paper aims to reviewing the recent advances in sail aerodynamics and to highlight potential research areas for future work.
Original languageEnglish
Article number040000
Pages (from-to)1-12
Number of pages13
JournalApplied Mechanics Reviews
Volume65
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • sail aerodynamics
  • yacht
  • wind

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Recent advances in sailing yacht aerodynamics'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this