Case Study
The Ansys optiSLang optimization toolbox was used together with Ansys CFX fluid dynamics software package in order to find an optimal wing and rotor geometry.
At the end of 2018, the famous Russian adventurer Fedor Konyukhov is going to set his solo round-the-world sailing on the rowing boat AKROS from Australia to Cape Horn. The journey will start from the Australian island of Tasmania. Konyukhov will sail south of New Zealand to the Pacific Ocean to meet the largest stretch of the Southern Ocean. The entire route is 9,000 km.
Sailors call the areas between the latitudes of 40 and 60 degrees south the “Roaring Forties.” The average wind speed in these latitudes is 10-15 m/s (6-7 on the Beaufort scale), reaching 30-40 m/s during violent storms which are regular in this area. Icebergs can be seen all year round across the Southern Ocean. Some of them may reach several hundred meters in height.
The new AKROS boat was designed on the basis of the TURGOYAK rowing boat sailed by Konyukhov in 2016, during his world-first circumnavigation. The design has to be adjusted to extreme sailing conditions. To build a new rowing boat, British designer Phil Morrison was invited. He designed the two boats for Konyukhov: URALAZ and TURGOYAK. The size of the new boat will be 9 meters. The forebody will be divided into two watertight compartments with an additional “crash box”.
The preliminary design shows that crossing the ocean at low temperatures will require an additional source of electric power to heat the stern compartment with a navigation room, a cook galley and a recreation compartment. The main source of electric power of the TURGOYAK is solar panels. SimuLabs engineers suggested that the additional source of power for the AKROS boat should be a small wind turbine. The engineers developed and patented a revolutionary configuration and design of the wind turbine which deals with the ship’s stability and slightly increases the specific resistance of the boat.