Abstract
Nowadays, with the escalating tensions in maritime dispute and the development of marine economy, there has been renewed interest in seaplanes for their special capacity of taking off and landing on water. Prediction of take-off performance, involving aerodynamic analysis and hydrodynamic analysis, is a main challenge in seaplane design, while the prediction methods have been little improved since the 1960s. This paper aims to investigate the attitude and resistance characteristics of a seaplane at different speeds during the take-off by numerically modeling the air-water flow field using RANS equations with VOF method. The trim and heave motion of seaplane in response to aerodynamic forces, hydrodynamic forces, hydrostatic forces, and propeller thrust was realized by solving rigid body dynamics equations and adopting dynamic overset mesh technique. The variations in heave, trim angle, and resistance characteristics during the takeoff were investigated, and their inherent relationships with the aerodynamic, hydrodynamic, and hydrostatic performance were revealed. Particular investigation on the hydrodynamic resistance indicates that the stagnation line located at the convex bow would contribute a considerable increase of pressure resistance at the first hump, and the trim angel of a seaplane should be operated in an optimum trim range, typical between 4–6 deg, to minimize the hydrodynamic resistance at the second hump. Additionally, the dynamic motion convergence study proves that the utilization of damping terms was an effective way to accelerate the convergence of the dynamic motion ending with a quasi-static state.
Highlights
IntroductionSeaplanes are powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water
Seaplanes are powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water.They once played an important role in the early stage of modern aviation
The seaplane planning at twelve speeds ranging from 0 m/s to 14 m/s were simulated to examine the variations of heave and trim angle and their inherent relationship with aerodynamic performance and hydrodynamic performance
Summary
Seaplanes are powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water. They once played an important role in the early stage of modern aviation. The main challenge faced by designers for evaluating the take-off performance is the prediction on the resistance characteristics, since during take-off the seaplane is free to trim and heave in subject to the forces of hydrodynamics, hydrostatics, aerodynamics, and propulsion system. Evaluation of hydrodynamic performance is the most challenging job because the seaplane disturbs the water surface into complicated wave flow that is difficult to predict. The water load and trim angle would be influenced by the aerodynamic lift and pitching moment respectively, which basically results in the coupling of hydrodynamic performance and aerodynamic performance that makes the prediction more complicated [3]
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