Turbulence stimulation.

The drag of an object in a mixed laminar and turbulent flow is depended on the extent of the laminar region. The NACA 66 series of foil shapes tries to maximize this region by delaying the location of the increase in pressure on the surface of the foil. As the extent is also dependent upon the Reynolds number and the surface roughness these items have to be taken into account when expanding model tests to full size. Not only must the Reynolds number of the model match that of the full size section ,but the regions of laminar and turbulent flow should be as close to identical as possible. For example yaghts keel is believed that it operates in an almost full turbulent fashion on any but extremely small craft. In order to simulate this in testing facilities for keels and hull shapes ,it is common practice to install some kind of turbulence stimulator to the forward edge of the body being tested The primary purpose of stimulating turbulence for resistance tests on ship models is to stabilize the models frictional resistance, so that the corresponding plank frictional resistance can be computed with confidence. Experiments with small models has shown that neither consistent nor reproducible test results can be expected unless turbulence is stimulated. In all model tests, transition from laminar 6 to turbulent flow occurs relatively rther aft (due to relatively lower Rn numbers, Rn(model) ~10 and Rn 9 (ship) ~10 In order to avoid this scale effect, the model is equipped with some artificial materials (sand strip, studs, trip wires etc.) called turbulence stimulators.

Turbulence stimulators

1. Sand strips , at or near the stern Sand strips used for turbulence stimulation will typically comprise backing strips/adhesive of 5 mm to 10 mm width covered with sharp edged sand with grain size around 0.50 mm, with its leading edge situated about 5% LPP aft of the FP. This kind of turbulence devise is most effective when they introduce energy directly into the boundary layer is self, very near at the leading edge.

2. Studs ahead of the stearn The dimensions of studs and the location of the studs as turbulence stimulators on a raked stem of conventional type are given by Hughes and Allan (1951) and NPL Report 10/59 (1960).

3. Rod In this kind of stimulation it is appeared that the turbulence produced by the rod decays more rapidly at the surface than the keel depth .It is expected that quantitative measurements of the decay of turbulence behind rods will provide sufficient data to determine the best position of the rod adequate stimulation.

4. Trip wires near the bow Wires used for turbulence stimulation will be typically between 0.5 mm and 1.0 mm diameter, depending on position and model speed, and be situated about 5% LPP aft of the FP