FLUID STRUCTURE INTERACTIONS RESEARCH GROUP

f Yacht Racing: Combination of Yacht Dynamics and Cr

Thomas Spenkuch ts305@soton.ac.uk - School of Engineering Sciences Supervisors Dr. S. R. Turnock and Prof. R. A. Shenoi

Introduction
Steady state performance of a sailing yacht and manoeuvring performance can be modelled with good accuracy To predict the performance of a yacht the yacht and the crew have to be simulated as a whole system A yacht race is influenced by non-deterministic variables such as weather conditions and sea state A large impact on the performance of the yacht is how the crew, especially the helmsman anticipates/responds to these changing environmental conditions

Sailors and Session Procedure

8 sailors are classified according to their sailing skills and their background of the utilisation of computer games use and the corresponding input devices (novice, experienced, and expert) Identical presentation for every sailor to ensure the same pre-knowledge with an introduction to the sessions tool and objectives Session procedure: presentation, trial, questionnaire part one, 7 races, questionnaire part two and final discussion

Aims of Research
How does realism of a fleet race sailing simulator influence sailor performance? Part of on-going research that focuses on the development of training tools for sailing that capture human psychological responses Simulation of the motion of the sailing yacht, especially the interaction between the yachts during overtaking manoeuvres (blanketing effect, covering, etc.)

Upwind Race Tracks

Example of race tracks from sailor #4, race #7 using ADE/Steering Wheel, as the two computer controlled yachts respond to the wind shifts the pattern of wind variation can be seen in their course variation

Display Environments
Basic Setup Advanced Setup

Results
Sailor # 4 5 6 7 8 Level of Sailing Skills Experienced Expert Novice Experienced Expert Level of CG and ID Expert Experienced Expert Novice Expert Performance Improvement [%] 8.4 6.3 -4.5 16.8 20.7 Position in Race #1 / Race Time [s] 1 / 443.2 1 / 429.7 1 / 408.6 3 / 516.5 3 / 520.7 Position in Race #7 / Race Time [s] 1 / 408.8 1 / 404.3 1 / 427.8 1 / 442.1 1 / 431.2 Comparison to Joystick Race #1 8.3 14.8 Comparison to Joystick Race #7 5.4 51.1 -

Fig. 1: Basic Display Environment Two flat screens (15.4 and 20) Joystick PID-controller

Fig. 2: Advanced Display Environment Three Overhead-Wall-Projectors One flat screen (15.4) Steering Wheel and Joystick

Basic display environment (BDE): No clear picture of performance improvement can be drawn Sailors struggled with joystick/PID-controller setup (wrong input) Delivers necessary environmental information to the sailor Advanced display environment (ADE): Clear performance improvement for almost every sailor Problem-free handling of the steering wheel device (positive feedback) More involved, active, concentrated and vital user behaviour

Robo-Race [1]
MATLAB-Simulink code which is able to simulate solo and real time fleet race of three yachts with one controlled by a real sailor.

Conclusions (based on BDE and ADE investigations)

The sailors performance can be improved by enhancing the realism of the simulation ADE with direct rudder angle control supports the users natural sailing behaviour BDE with PID-controller is neither practical nor effective ADE/steering wheel setup is an effective training tool for sailing Further work is necessary to enhance the simulators realism

Automatic crew which consists of : Fig. 3: Two yachts on the racecourse Modelled by proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller Outputs the rudder angle and rudder rate Steers to a reference apparent wind angle or towards the next mark Outputs are the sheeting angle and its derivative A PID controller minimises the error between the reference sheeting angle and its actual value A 2nd controller depowers the sail to limit the actual heeling Checks the position of the yacht on the racecourse Issues strategical decisions Detects changes in wind conditions Controls manoeuvres and the following speed recovery

Lifting Line Method for Modelling Covering/Blanketing Effects

The wake of an upwind yacht is represented as a single heeled horse shoe (and image) vortex system At each time step changes in vortex strength are convected into the wake as a pair of vortex line elements The system moves in accordance with the local wind, self-induced velocity and velocity induced by the presence of the wake of other yachts Detailed 3D RANS calculation are analysed to provide an approximate single vortex method for the yacht

Helmsman

Sail tailor

Conclusions (based on Lifting Line Method investigations)

The lifting line method is capable of describing the phenomena of blanketing and covering within a yacht fleet simulation environment with multiple yachts Detailed CFD analysis of the yachts wake gave important insight of the vortex core development downstream of the sail rig The CFD results showed good agreement for single and multiple yacht setups Important physical features are captured at a very low computational cost

Navigator

Task and Run Setup

One real sailor races against two computer controlled Robot- American Cup Classyachts Upwind race: of a nautical mile with rounding of mark to finish Performance variables: race time and race position when finishing Stochastic wind conditions with variable wind speed and wind angle (~5m/s and 20) with oscillatory pattern 7 races with different setups: starting positions, yacht performances, opponents skills and onboard instrument support

Future Work
Implementation of the lifting line MATLAB-routine within Robo-Race Development of a model describing the human behaviour and decision making process of sailors within a multiple yacht race environment