Study on Air Characteristics of the U-shaped Sail

Abstract

Sail-assisted technology is an effective mean to reduce the carbon emission of shipping industry. In order to research the air characteristics of u-shaped sails, we select more than 20 attack angles to conduct wind blowing tests on u-shaped sails and ordinary laminar sails. The air characteristic parameters such as lift-drag coefficient, lift-drag ratio, resultant force coefficient and torque, as well as the thrust coefficient and lateral force coefficient influencing the propulsion effect of the two models were obtained by data acquisition equipment. The results show that the u-shaped’s maximum lift coefficient is 2.199 when the attack angle is +18°and significantly higher than control group. The thrust coefficient of the u-shaped sail is approximately twice that of the conventional laminar wind sail, which can obtain greater propulsion power.