SPIV measurements around the DELFT 372 catamaran in steady drift

The present work concerns the experimental measurements of the velocity field around a catamaran advancing in static drift. The main aim of the paper was to investigate the dynamics of the vortices generated by catamaran hulls with particular emphasis on the mechanisms of generation, detachment, downstream evolution and destabilization. In this context, a Stereo-PIV campaign has been performed to map the velocity fields on some cross-planes along and downstream of the catamaran. Froude numbers equal to 0.4 and 0.5 at drift angles as large as 6 degrees and 9 degrees have been selected as testing conditions. In all the tests, the model has been fixed at the dynamical values of trim and sinkage, measured in a preliminary static drift experiments. Major geometrical and kinematical characteristics of the keel vortices have been documented in the paper through the analysis of the mean and fluctuating components of the velocity and vorticity field. Vortex interaction with the wave pattern has been investigated as well through the use of a conditional average technique of the velocity snapshots with the free surface elevation. As a secondary, but important, outcome, a valuable experimental dataset for CFD benchmarking in severe off-design conditions has been collected.