Record breaking boat with FloEFD simulation hull pressure contours superimposed onto the hull.
The paper states that in the world of Formula 2 (F2) boat racing, there is not enough time or money for prototyping. Often it is as simple as design, build, and race. Though exciting, this development path is not conducive to ensuring financial or racing success. To that end, proper design engineering, ingenuity and simulation are essential to ensure that a boat’s design is optimized before it is built.
The design specifications for the F2 boat were not simple. Bernico wanted Voxdale to design a commercially viable boat that would be capable of going 0-60 mph in six seconds, contain a 300 HP engine, cruise 97% above the water, and produce minimal rear deck and cockpit turbulence.
To meet these targets, Voxdale took Bernico’s current boat design, brainstormed changes and produced CAD/CAE models as a baseline for optimization using CFD simulation.
(Left) Brainstorming, (Center) Design, (Right) Optimization.
In the end, the final design was within 2% of the predicted maximum speed and performed better with respect to acceleration than Bernico had requested. On top of that, stability and drivability were both improved.
In its maiden race, the boat broke the 100 mph barrier at the UK’s Power Boat Records Week in November 2009. That day, the boat clocked in at 103.6 mph – smashing through the 100 mph barrier.In 2010 Bernico released a cruiser edition available to the public, and I for one am excited about the opportunity to pilot such an engineering marvel.
For additional information on how Voxdale managed to break the water vehicle barrier with the aide of simulation, feel free to read the whitepaper for yourself.