Experimental and numerical investigation of the flow around a submarine snorkel mast

The present work is dedicated to the experimental and numerical investigation of the flow field around a submarine snorkel mast moving with a forward speed in calm sea. The main objective is the determination of the pattern and extension of the outgoing jet which generates around the deplumer positioned on the upper part of the mast. Numerical simulations performed with a Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics solver have been used as a complement to the experimental tests achieved in the INSEAN Towing Tank n o 1 facility. The experiments have been conducted on full model scale to avoid effects related to the water surface tension which can reduce and inhibit the jet formation on a model scale. The numerical description of such a kind of flow is very challenging because of the large deformation and fragmentation of the free surface, especially for the highest forward speed conditions. To overcome the limit of the standard SPH solver, an innovative and promising SPH model has been adopted.