Computational and experimental study on performance of sails of a yacht

It is important to understand flow characteristics and performances of sails for both sailors and designers who want to have efficient thrust of yacht. In this paper the viscous flows around sail-like rigid wings, which are similar to main and jib sails of a 30 feet sloop, are calculated using a CFD tool. Lift, drag and thrust forces are estimated for various conditions of gap distance between the two sails and the center of effort of the sail system are obtained. Wind tunnel experiments are also carried out to measure aerodynamic forces acting on the sail system and to validate the computation. It is found that the combination of two sails produces the lift force larger than the sum of that produced separately by each sail and the gap distance between the two sails is an important factor to determine total lift and thrust.