Analysis of the interaction between the lifting wing and the hydrodynamic control surfaces

The contemporaneous presence of lifting surfaces and control devices, respectively up and down the line water level, makes necessary a careful consideration around the possible interference that is generated by coupling the aerodynamic and hydrodynamic fields. To this purpose we shall devote our attention to the exam of the force coefficients and relative changes in comparison with variations of main kinematic and geometrical parameters. Here we are studying both the hydrodynamic flow around submerged lifting and surface piercing structures and the aerodynamic flow around airfoil near the free surface described trough a simplified geometry. This is achieving across a mathematical model that links both fields by a special condition imposed over the separation surface. The numerical solution of the problem is obtained applying to boundary integral equations and making use of a befitting iterative process. Always within this ambit, we have inserted a particular flow decomposition of the hydrodynamic field so that the interface contours in correspondence of high speed comes out better defined. Hence, the results obtained applying the model, before to a simplified system then to the complete configuration, are collected and discussed. In the last paragraph we have resumed the principal issues around the wing-struts interactions.