Iterative Design and Testing of Hydrofoil Demonstrator Craft

Abstract

In the world of marine transportation, hydrofoil crafts have become of increasing interest. The Center for Marine Autonomy and Robotics at Virginia Tech has been contracted by the Office of Naval Research to design, test, and validate a hydrofoil demonstrator platform to assess the feasibility of a personal hydrofoil craft for wider use. Initial testing was done on a previous design of a conventional configuration hydrofoil craft, wherein the hydrofoil design was found to not produce enough lift for stable takeoff. A re-design of foil and foiling system was done using a thorough computational fluid dynamics study which examined why the original foil failed and what needed to be addressed in the next iteration. New foiling equilibrium conditions were determined using the data from the CFD for the re-design, and were validated during a series of field tests. Qualitative and quantitative data from testing was then used to improve onboard systems and verify a takeoff condition. The final hydrofoil design and configuration was validated as being able to achieve a clean take off condition. However, the equilibrium conditions of stable flight were not fully validated as only takeoff was achieved. Full system validation would require the development, implementation, and testing of an active control system.