A Preliminary Investigation into the Hydroelastic Behaviour of a Non-Rigidly Mounted Hydrofoil

Abstract

A preliminary investigation into the behaviour of a non-rigidly mounted hydrofoil is described. The foil was excited by boundary layer turbulence and trailing edge vortex shedding. The investigation involved the development and commissioning of specialised equipment to mount a hydrofoil in the Australian Maritime College Cavitation tunnel to enable parameters such as the stiffness and clearances about the 1st torsion mode of the mounting shaft to be varied. Tests were performed on a NACA 0015 foil with 200 mm chord, an 8 mm blunt trailing edge and a span of 274 mm. The affect of changing the stiffness and clearance parameters on the dynamic response of the foil were measured via a three-axis accelerometer mounted inside the foil.