Numerical Study on Body Form of Flettner Sail Using Computational Fluid Dynamics

According to the important rule of maritime transport in world trade and prevent the further emission of greenhouse gases, ships' propulsion system needs innovative designs. One of these plans was the rotor sail introduced in recent decades. This idea uses wind power to help propulsion ships and is based on the Magnus effect, which Anton Flettner proposed. The selected geometry is based on the experimental tests performed at Reynolds number ۵۸۰۰ for speed ratio ۰ and ۴ simulated. The numerical solution has been done by the CFD method, and the results of lift and drag coefficients are obtained and validated. The results show that by changing the body form, the behavior of fluid around it also changes and leads to a different distribution of velocity and pressure. For both models with a stationary cylinder, CD=۰.۶۷ and for the first rotational model, CL=۶.۳۵ & CD=۱.۰۷۶ and for the proposed form, CL=۶.۰۴۱ & CD=۱.۰۳۹.

Keywords:

Rotor sail , Magnus effect , Flettner , Numerical analysis , Wind assisted ship propulsion