The scope of this project is two-fold. First, a state of the art numerical modeling approach to investigate calm water hydrodynamic resistance on Kayak hulls. Secondly, the project treats the topic of velocity/power measurements of kayak hulls. Current CFD models of kayak hulls are performed in steady state. However, using this approach the pitch and heave motion are not taken into consideration. This study extends the current modeling framework by allowing changes in the kayaks heave and pitch angle during simulation. The simulations are verified by a self-designed experiment.
The velocity measurement device is constructed to fit inside the kayak rudder and its working principle is based on a pitot-static tube. The placement of the stagnation and static holes is based on analytical and numerical approaches. The velocity readings from the rudder are validated by experiments performed in a wind tunnel.
The CFD simulations yielded accurate results for Froude number of 0.45 with an error less than 5%. Increasing the Froude number to 0.56 resulted in larger deviation and the CFD models underpredicted the total resistance with approx 18 %
The rudder predicted reliable velocity readings, with an error below 8.5% from the reference value.