Flow Separation Control On Water Surface Structures

Flow separation observed on surface-piercing cylinder and AHTS surface ship is a major cause of unexpected drag increase in marine structures. The experimental study and CFD analysis of hydrodynamic flow separation control through Passive Vortex Generators (VG) were conducted in Shanghai Jiao Tong University. VG has been widely used in aircraft industry to prevent or delay flow separation over wings. The function of VG is to introduce vortices into the flow ahead of the separation point to energize the boundary layer and thus to delay the flow separation. The towing test results demonstrate VG's effectiveness in resistance improvement of marine structures under influence of free surface wave making.