CFD prediction of the effect of appendages and leeway on the force trend of an Olympic class Laser dinghy hull

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the minima in hydrodynamic resistance can be predicted to occur at the same angles of heel and trim in the case of bare hull towing tank tests, bare hull simulations and appendage and leeway simulations. If so, the appendages and the leeway can be rejected from future investigations, which would prove a beneficial advancement, as they impose further complexity to simulations. The results of verification and validation (V&V) included in this paper demonstrate that the numerical method predicted too low resistance. Though the study identifies and systematically investigates possible sources of error, the major source of error was not found. These various possible sources of errors were identified for further research, and as future references for similar cases. Moreover, the simulation results for the variations of heel and trim also require further study. Before a full set of results is available, one cannot make conclusions regarding the angles of heel and trim that lead to minimal resistance. This paper discusses the results and potential avenues of future research, and is a result of an initiative at Chalmers University of Technology focusing on sports and technology