Session: 09-01-08 Wind Energy: Design and Process II

Submission Number: 176067

Influence of Wing-Sail Arrangement on Propulsion Power Saving of Ships 

The global maritime industry faces mounting pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as the International Maritime Organization (IMO) enforces increasingly stringent environmental regulations. Among the emerging sustainable technologies, the wing sail has been recognized as a promising wind-assisted propulsion system to meet these regulatory challenges. Therefore, precise evaluation of the aerodynamic performance and thrust characteristics of wing sails is essential for their practical implementation on full-scale vessels. Since the performance of wing sails installed on ships can vary significantly depending on their arrangement, this study conducted Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations to analyze the performance differences of four wing sails installed on a Very Large Ore Carrier (VLOC), arranged in both linear and square configurations. Prior to this, a convergence test and validation study were carried out for a single wing sail to verify the reliability of the mesh and the applied numerical methods by comparing CFD results with experimental data. The performance differences observed between configurations were primarily attributed to variations in the incoming flow caused by the ship’s hull. Velocity contour analyses were used to qualitatively examine local flow changes according to the arrangement, and wind velocity distributions at different heights were compared at a specific distance from the wing sails to quantitatively demonstrate these variations. The second reason for the performance differences between configurations is the aerodynamic interference among the wing sails. This interference effect was identified through pressure contour analyses on the wing sail surfaces. Since both the hull-induced incoming flow variations and the inter-sail interference effects can vary significantly depending on the wind direction, polar plots for both configurations were directly compared. Based on these technical performance analyses, route-based power-saving assessments were also conducted using wind data from the ERA5 hindcast model for the Brazil–East Asia and Brazil–Europe routes, which are the primary trading routes of VLOCs according to the AIS data that the Korean Register has. This study suggests that the influence of wing sail arrangement must be carefully considered when estimating the assisted thrust of the wing sail, and it is expected to provide valuable insights for the future design and engineering of wing sail applications on large commercial vessels.

Presenting Author: Seungchul Shin Korean Register

Presenting Author Biography: Junior researcher at Korean Register

Authors:

Seungchul Shin Korean Register
Sangyeob Kim Korean Register
Minsu Kim Korean Register
Joongyu Kim Korean Register