Patent Application: US-201514796109-A

Abstract:
wingsail . the wingsail includes a substantially rigid airfoil section having a leading and a trailing edge and a flap is attached to the trailing edge through a torsion fitting having a torsional stiffness along the span of the rigid airfoil section selected to control flap deflection with respect to the rigid airfoil section under aerodynamic loading to control rolling moment of the wingsail .

Description:
in this patent application , we disclose the use of spanwise deformable wings to allow a wingsail to operate in an optimum and naturally occurring adaptive manner over a wider range of wind speeds while still constraining rolling moment . large catamarans , as are used in the america &# 39 ; s cup , have large wingsails with a high aspect ratio . these wings are very effective and can generate significant thrust . however , these wingsails are not always trimmed to give optimum performance , and due to the large span of the wind can create extreme rolling moments . in soft sails , the sail can be trimmed in order to depower the sail , and can be reefed - reducing the span — at high wind velocities . in the wingsail case , this rolling moment can be reduced by having multiple vertical flap sections that can be individually controlled by the crew to give a desired span - wise twist , as described in ref ( 8 ). altering these sections already leads to a decrease in performance , but the fact that these are manually controlled by the crew means that the sail is not trimmed at its optimized potential . also , given that the crew has other responsibilities , there are more chances for the boat to capsize in an emergency . when boats capsize , especially boats used in the america &# 39 ; s cup , it is highly dangerous for the crew and can lead to substantial financial loss . by creating a wingsail with a naturally deformable spanwise - twisting trailing flap , we can potentially decrease this rolling moment at high wind speeds in a naturally occurring , adaptive manner without a substantial penalty in lift and drag . adaptive wingsails also have an advantage in their dynamic response to sudden changes in wind speed , or gusts . the spanwise flexibility will adaptively reduce the lift on the wing during a sudden increase in wind strength . this reduction in lift will be most pronounced at the wing tip , providing a limitation on the rolling moment . in our analysis , we consider the behavior of a wingsail consisting of a forward wing section with a flap attached to its trailing edge through a torsion fitting . the individual airfoil sections of the flap are taken to be rigid in cross section but deformable in twist in the spanwise direction . the total resistance to spanwise twist deformation in response to applied aerodynamic moments is characterized by the torsional stiffness , whether this comes from a structural attachment that functions as a torsion rod and / or from the stiffness of the airfoil sections to spanwise twist . we first consider a sing of constant chord , which can be solved analytically , then a wing of varying chord with constant torsional stiffness ; and finally a wing of varying chord with varying apply these ideas to a wingsail of any size operating in a specified range of wind speeds . this analysis also has application to the use of wingsails to power cargo ships . automatic reduction of rolling moment at high wind speeds due to spanwise flexibility would be especially important for a ship that operates on the open ocean , reducing the work load on the crew while maintaining good safety margins . the analysis is also applicable to extreme sailing competitions , such as round - the - world races , which can encounter extremely dangerous conditions off - shore . we consider a wing of span y and chord c ( y ) as shown in fig1 . the wing consists of a rigid airfoil section with a flap attached to the fixed airfoil by a torsion rod of strength κ . the chord of the wing is c ( y ); for our calculations , we will consider a flap chord that is one - half of the local wing chord c f ( y )= ½c ( y ). initially , we will take the torsional stiffness κ to be constant along the span but clearly its variation could be easily included , as is done in the final case studied . the angle of attack of the wing is taken as α ; the angle of attack of the flap relative to the wing is α 1 ( y ) as shown in fig2 . since our interest is in the effect of spanwise flexibility , α 1 is a function of y , determined by aerodynamic loads and torsional stiffness . we will use two - dimensional linear aerodynamic theory and treat each spanwise section using “ strip ” theory to estimate the effects of spanwise flexibility on the lift and moment distribution along the span . that is , the airfoil flow is assumed to be locally two - dimensional , and the local lift and moment are integrated along the span to obtain the total results for lift and rolling moment . at each section , the aerodynamic moment about the attachment point depends upon both α and α 1 ( y ). m ( y )= ½ρ u 2 c ( y ) 2 ( c m 0 α + c m 1 α 1 ( y )) ( 1 ) where c m 0 and c m 1 , the local moment slope coefficients , are available from linear two - dimensional theory . they depend upon the magnitude of the flap chord c f ( y ) relative to the total airfoil chord c ( y ). the moment on the flap acts to reduce the flap deflection α 1 . the relation between the aerodynamic moments and the local angle of attack is given by the torsional stiffness equation . κ ⁢ ⅆ α 1 ⅆ y = m ⁡ ( y ) = ∫ y y ⁢ m ⁡ ( y ) ⁢ ⁢ ⅆ y ( 2 ) where κ is the torsional stiffness : torque ( in ft lbs ) per radians / ft of twist : is a local material property of the structure . m ( y ) is the total moment at y due to the aerodynamic moment distribution along the span . see , fig3 . since the total torsional moment m ( y ) goes to zero at the tip , the total torsional moment acting at the point y is the integral of the aerodynamic moment m ( y ) from y to the tip y = y . the governing equation for the unknown flap deflection angle α 1 is given by the derivative of equation ( 2 ). this is a linear non - homogenous second order equation for α 1 ( y ) the boundary conditions for the equation are α 1 ( 0 )= α 1 0 and ⅆ α 1 ⁡ ( y ) ⅆ y = 0 . that is , the initial flap deflection α 1 0 , is set at the root of the wing ; and since there is no moment m ( y ) at the tip , y = y , the slope the governing equation is easily solved if both the chord c ( y ) is a constant : c ( y )= c 0 , and the torsional stiffness κ ( y ) is a constant , κ ( y )= κ . we begin with this case . we also take the chord of the flap equal to half of the chord of the total airfoil : c f = c / 2 . the span y is taken as 4 . for this choice , we can easily obtain the various lift and moment distributions along the wing . we will do this subsequently . the governing equation is characterized by the ratio of the dynamic pressure times the chord c 0 2 divided by the torsional stiffness κ : written for constant chord and constant torsional stiffness we define q = ρ ⁢ ⁢ u 2 ⁢ c 0 2 2 ⁢ ⁢ κ . ⅆ 2 ⁢ α 1 ⅆ y 2 - qc m 1 ⁢ α 1 = qc m 0 ⁢ α ( 4 ) with boundary conditions α 1 ( 0 )= α 1 0 and dα 1 ( y )/ dy = 0 . defining a = c m 0 q and b = c m 0 q we have from linear theory for this case , we obtain the aerodynamic moments about the flap attachment point due to the deflection of the forward airfoil a and the deflection of the flap α 1 ( y ), for an airfoil with a flap chord equal to half of the airfoil chord . these moment coefficients are : c m 0 α = 0 . 212α and c m 1 α 1 ( y )= 0 . 265α 1 ( y ). for later use , we also obtain the lift coefficients for the airfoil as c l 0 = 2πα and c l 1 = 5 . 181α 1 ( y ). we take the torsional stiffness κ equal to 1 . the results for the total angle of attack of the flap relative to the free stream , α + α 1 ( y ), as a function of y are shown in fig4 for a variety of velocities u in fps . the angles α and α 1 ( 0 ) are taken as 10 ° for all wind speeds . the effects of flap spanwise flexibility are clearly seen . at a wind speed of 60 fps , the angle of attack of the flap relative to the free stream flow is dramatically reduced at the tip due to its flexibility . for a wing of constant chord c 0 , the spanwise lift distribution is obtained directly from the angles of attack α and α 1 ( y ), of the wing and the flap , using “ strip ” theory . where the lift coefficients c l 0 and c l 1 have been previously introduced . the spanwise lift distribution is shown in fig5 for wind velocities of 20 , 30 , 40 , 50 , and 60 fps for a torsional stiffness κ = 1 , α = 10 ° and α 1 0 = 10 °. the spanwise lift distribution for a rigid wing at 60 fps is also shown . the reduction of spanwise lift distribution due to spanwise flexibility is dramatic . l ( y )= ½ρ u 2 c 0 c l 0 α + ½ρ u 2 c 0 c l 1 α 1 ( y ) ( 7 ) fig6 shows the spanwise lift distribution at a given velocity divided by the lift on a rigid wing of the same chord , planform and angle of attack . the effects of spanwise flexibility are clearly evident in the decreased lift outboard of the root relative to that of a rigid wing as the wind velocity increases . the aerodynamic moment used to characterize the effects of spanwise flap flexibility on wing performance is the moment about the root chord , y = 0 : the rolling moment . for a wing of constant chord c 0 , the contribution to the rolling moment from each spanwise section y is given by m ( y )= ½ρ u 2 c 0 ( c l 0 α + c l 1 α 1 ( y )) y ( 8 ) for the case examined , the results are shown in fig7 for wind velocities of 20 , 30 , 40 , 50 , and 60 fps . also shown is the contribution to the rolling moment from each spanwise section for a rigid wing . the decrease in sectional moment for the flexible flap is clearly evident . the total lift and moment on the wing for a wing of constant chord c 0 is obtained by integrating the sectional lift and moment along the span . l t = ½ρ u 2 ∫ 0 y c 0 (( c l 0 α + c l 1 α 1 ( y ) dy ( 9 ) m t = ½ρ u 2 ∫ 0 y c 0 (( c l 0 α + c l 1 α 1 ( y ) ydy ( 10 ) of interest is the ratio of the total lift and total moment on the flexible wing referred to the total lift and moment on a rigid wing of the same planform l t rigid = ½ρ u 2 ∫ 0 y c 0 (( c l 0 α + c l 1 α 1 0 ) dy ( 11 ) m t rigid = ½ρ u 2 ∫ 0 y c 0 (( c l 0 α + c l 1 α 1 0 ) ydy ( 12 ) where α 1 0 is the initial angle of attack of the flap at the root ; for a rigid wing α 1 0 remains constant along the span . the ratio of lift and moment to that of a rigid wing of the same planform is shown in fig8 as a function of velocity u . the difference due to spanwise flexibility is clearly seen , as is the more dramatic effect of flexibility on moment than upon lift . we now consider a wing of non - constant chord . to compare with our earlier analytic solution , we take the root chord as c 0 = 1 . 5 and the span as y = 4 . the chord is taken with a linear variation to a tip chord of c 1 = 75 . the chord distribution is then c ( y )= c 0 −( c 0 − c 1 )( y / y ). the wing planform is shown in fig9 . we can also take κ to vary along the span , although for our initial calculations we take κ = 1 . ⅆ 2 ⁢ α 1 ⅆ y 2 = m ⁡ ( y ) = ρ ⁢ ⁢ u 2 ⁢ c ⁡ ( y ) 2 2 ⁢ κ ⁢ ⁢ ( y ) ⁢ ( c m 0 ⁢ α + c m 1 ⁢ α 1 ⁡ ( y ) ) = a ⁡ ( y ) ⁢ α + b ⁡ ( y ) ⁢ α 1 ⁡ ( y ) ( 13 ) with the inclusion of a chord c ( y ) that varies with y . the coefficients a ( y ) and b ( y ) are as defined in equation ( 4 ) and ( 5 ), now varying with y : q ⁡ ( y ) = ρ ⁢ ⁢ u 2 ⁢ c ⁡ ( y ) 2 2 ⁢ κ ⁢ ⁢ ( y ) ; the boundary conditions remain α 1 ( 0 )= α 1 0 and dy = 0 at y = y = 4 . for this case , κ is again taken as constant : κ = 1 . the equation is solved numerically for α 1 ( y ) for different values of u : u = 20 , 30 , 40 , 50 , and 60 fps . the angle of attack of the wing α is taken as 10 °; the initial angle of attack of the flap α 1 ( 0 ) is also taken as α 1 ( 0 )= 10 °. the results show the spanwise variation of the total angle α + α 1 ( y ) as a function of wind speed u in fig1 . the decrease in angle of attack towards the tip due to spanwise flexibility at higher wing speeds is evident . also shown in fig1 is a comparison of the constant chord case ( dashed ) with the varying chord numerical solution . the constant chord solution for local angle of attack is somewhat more affected by spanwise flexibility at lower wind speeds but the overall results are quite similar . the spanwise lift and moment distribution is obtained from the strip theory formula using the solution for the flexible spanwise distortion of the flap α 1 ( y ). for this case both α and α 1 ( 0 ) were taken as 10 °. l ( y )= ½ρ u 2 c )( y )( c l 0 α + c l 1 α 1 ( y ) ( 14 ) m ( y )= ½ρ u 2 c )( y )( c l 0 α + c l 1 α 1 ( y ) ( 15 ) fig1 shows the spanwise lift distribution l ( y ) for a variety of wind speeds at constant angle of attack . the effect of spanwise flexibility at higher wind speeds is evident . fig1 shows the spanwise lift distribution referenced to the lift of a rigid wing of the same geometry . also shown dashed is the solution for the wing of constant chord at the same root chord and span . the results are quite close especially at higher wind speeds . fig1 shows the contribution to the rolling moment from the various spanwise sections . the spanwise flexibility of the flap acts to decrease the contribution from the outboard sections . fig1 shows the total lift and rolling moment as a function of wing speed , referred to their values for rigid wing of the same geometry . as can be seen , spanwise flexibility greatly reduces the lift and rolling moment at higher wind speeds . the reduction is greater for the rolling moment than for the lift . finally , the results are shown in fig1 for total lift and rolling moment for both the wing of constant chord and the wing of linearly varying chord , for the same value of root chord c 0 = 1 . 5 and torsional stiffness κ = 1 . the results are very similar , giving the designer a tool for designing a wing for a particular application , for example to maintain a reasonable lift while reducing rolling moment at higher wind speeds in comparison to a rigid wing . in the actual application of these results , the angle of attack would be reduced as the wind speed increases to maintain constraint on rolling moment . since the governing equations are linear , the lift and moment scale with the actual value of the angle of attack . as an example , we assume that the constraint on rolling moment is reached at a critical wind speed of 20 fps . we then plot the ratio of lift to its value at 20 fps , using results from this case . as can be seen in fig1 , if the rolling moment remains constant due to changes in angle of attack , the lift continues to increase , allowing additional lift / thrust to be generated while maintaining constant rolling moment . the previous analysis assumed constant torsional stiffness κ along the span . since the loading at the tip is important for the relief of rolling moment at high wind velocities , it makes sense to examine the effect of varying torsional stiffness κ ( y ) along the span . we assume a linear distribution of κ ( y ) as shown in the fig1 , with κ ( 0 )= 1 ; the chordwise variation of chord c ( y ) along the span is also shown . we allow the torsional stiffness to decrease dramatically with spanwise distance but do not set it to zero at the tip to avoid a singularity in the governing equations . the variation of the coefficients a ( y ) and b ( y ) which appear in the governing equations is also shown . strong variation at the tip is observed . for this case , the variation of α + α 1 ( y ) along the span at various wind speeds is shown in fig1 in comparison with the constant chord , constant torsional stiffness solution . as is expected , there is more variation at the wing tip due to the increased tip flexibility . shown in fig2 is the spanwise lift distribution at constant angle of attack in comparison with the constant chord , constant torsional stiffness solution . as expected , the lift is reduced at the wing tip at higher wind speeds . the spanwise distribution of moment at constant angle of attack is shown in fig2 . the effect of spanwise flexibility acts to reduce the rolling moment contribution well below that for a rood wing . these results are shown in comparison to the constant chord , constant stiffness solution . the decrease in spanwise contribution to the total rolling moment is evident as shown in fig2 . fig2 shows the lift and rolling moment relative to their values from a rigid wing as a function of wind speed . shown is the solution for varying chord and varying torsional stiffness , as well as the solution for constant chord . fig2 compares the results of total lift and rolling moment , relative to that for a rigid wing , for the three cases studied as a function of wind speed . these results give the designer choices to achieve a desired outcome . the previous analysis was conducted for a wing of a speckle size , as would be appropriate to predict the outcome of a wind tunnel test . it is straightforward to extend the analysis , using non - dimensional variables , so that the results are applicable to a wing of any size . the requirements on the wing would specify chord c 0 , span y , operating wind speed u and desired behavior . the parameter to be identified for application to a specific wing is the torsional stiffness κ : torque m required in ft lbs per to produce a twist dα / dy , in radians / ft . we consider the case of constant chord c 0 for analytic simplicity ; the more general case can easily be considered . we begin our analysis with equation ( 3 ). this equation is written for a wing span from y = 0 to y = y where y is the wing span . we nondimensionalize the equation using the variable y ′= y / y . the equation becomes this allows us to identity the governing non - dimensional parameter which we call ū . the equation now contains one non - dimensional variable ū and the two moment coefficients that have already been introduced . the solution follows as before . we construct the solution for the flap angle α 1 ( y ′) for constant chord , since this results in a simple analytic solution . this equation determines α 1 ( y ′) for various values of the non - dimensional parameter ū . the results for the total angle of attack α + α 1 ( y ) are shown in fig2 . the reduction in angle of attack due to spanwise flexibility is quite pronounced in the range 8 & lt ; ū . the spanwise distribution of lift coefficient c l ( y ′) is shown in fig2 for a range of ū from 4 to 16 . the range 8 & lt ; ū shows a dramatic decrease in the contribution of outboard wing sections to the rolling moment coefficient due to spanwise flexibility . the spanwise distribution of rolling moment coefficient c m ( y ′) is shown in fig2 for a range of ū from 4 to 16 . the range 8 & lt ; ū shows a dramatic decrease in the contribution of outboard wing sections to the rolling moment coefficient due to spanwise flexibility . we now consider how these non - dimensional results relate to our earlier calculations for a specific planform . we consider the constant chord solution : y = 4 ; c 0 = 1 . 5 ; and k = 1 and u = 40 fps . this results in a ū = 8 . 27 . (√{ square root over ( ρ ( 40 fps ) 2 * 4 2 1 . 5 2 /( 2 *( κ = 1 ))}= ū = 8 . 27 .) we then inquire as so what value of κ would be required to realize this same result ( distribution of α + α 1 ( y )) for a wing of span 70 ft ., with a chord of 10 ft . at a wind speed of 25 kts . for this case , we set √{ square root over ( ρ ( 25 kts / 0 . 59 ) 2 * 70 2 * 10 2 /( 2 * κ ))}= ū = 8 . 27 and obtain κ = 15288 . ( the factor 0 . 59 is the conversion from kts to fps .) once the spanwise deflection of the flap α 1 ( y ) is determined for a given wind speed , the aerodynamic properties of lift and moment along the span as well as the total lift and total rolling moment can be determined . as previously noted , at higher wind speeds the angle of attack can be reduced to constrain rolling moment while the lift continues to increase , increasing thrust , ( 1 ) jones , r . t . “ the spanwise distribution of lift for minimum induced drag of wings having a given lift and a given bending moment ” naca tn2249 , 1950 ( 2 ) wood , c . j ., tan , s . h ., “ towards an optimum yacht sail .” journal of fluid dynamics , vol . 85 , part 3 , 1978 , pp . 459 - 477 . 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