Parametric design of hydrofoils

This paper presents a parametric study of hydrofoils investigating various design configurations carried out with CFD. The purpose of the study is to assess the hydrodynamic performance enhancements achieved by incorporating different design parameters, including the addition of winglets, the variation of the strut angle, the addition of bulbs, and the free surface proximity. It is shown that greater changes in lift and drag forces are found for the winglet design and the influence of the free surface. For the former, upward or downward winglets with high cant angle give the best overall performance in terms of CL/CD ratio. For the latter, an optimum CL/CD ratio is found for relative free surface heights between 2 and 3. The addition of a bulb is necessary from the structural and propulsion points of view and reduces the CL/CD ratio, but different bulbs have minimal impact on hydrodynamic performance. The variation in the strut angle has an impact on the drag coefficient for values larger than 30 degrees due to the increase in virtual thickness. These results offer valuable insight into the effects of these design parameters on the hydrofoil performance, providing potential avenues for optimizing hydrofoil efficiency.