CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics), or computer-based numerical simulation, is growing more and more important as an instrument to define the best shape for a hull, especially when it gets down to competitions.
Which is what happened for the latest America’s Cup.
Computers guide and assist every single activity of ours, an instrument we could not possibly do without. This being true in everyday life, it is even truer for any design activity, including boat design.
When designing a boat, however, computers are not only helpful for the hull, furniture, and all we need for those pictures and videos we dream about as if already onboard. Computers are actually used to calculate boat structures, design them, test stability, cut plates, build parts, components and eventually the whole ship, using numerical control cutters and 3d printers. And there’s more to it!! Computers can also predict the boat hydrodynamic behaviour, her resistance to motion, her reaction to waves, engine performances. It is Computational Fluid Dynamics we are talking about, better known as CFD. Or numerical simulation, if we want to stick to Italian.
CFD has clearly developed along with computer science; it is now fully reliable and intensively used everywhere, most of all where outstanding performances are sought after. Competitions, for instance. CFD’s contributions to the flying AC75 monohulls we saw at Auckland last year was priceless: hulls, sails, masts, and even foils, the wings that lift this kind of boats from water. It all came
