Proceedings of The Twelfth (2002) International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference

Kitakyushu, Japan, May 26-31, 2002

Copyright 0 2002 by The International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers
ISBN l-880653-58-3 (Set); ISSN 1098-6189 (Set)

An Experimental Approach for the Prediction of Full-scale Forces

Acting on the Submerged Control Surfaces of a New WIG Vehicle

D. Des&, F. Pistani
INSEAN - Italian Ship Model Basin
Roma, Italy

ABSTRACT the limit of conventional high-speed ships like conventional fast

The prediction of the performances of hydrofoils especially for vessels, Surface Effect Ships (SES), Small Water (Plain) Area
fast vessels, where these foils are employed to control pitch and Twin Hull (SWATH) and similar.
roll motion, is a quite difficult task. Different phenomena have Early in this century it was observed that a wing operating
to be taken into account: fixed and vortex cavitation, relevant in close proximity to the ground exhibits a reduction in induced
free-surface effect, flow interaction with the strut bearing the drag, which increases its lift/drag ratio, known as aerodynamic
hydrofoil. This is the case of the Surface Piercing, Hydrofoil efficiency (Milne & Thomson (1958)). For several decades this
Controlled Wing-In-Ground Effect (SP-HC-WIG) vehicle: this is phenomenon, called the wing-in-ground effect (WIG), was stud-
a new concept vessel designed to transport payload at cruising ied because it complicated the takeoff and landing of low wing
speeds beyond the limit of conventional high-speed ships. Using aircrafts. In the early 1960s the feasibility of designing a vehi-
a numerical approach that accounts for all the outlined phenom- cle which would provide exceptional performance by cruising in
ena is quite complicate and the reliability of the results obtained ground effect over the ocean was extensively studied in various
is dependent on comparison with experimental data. As a re- research programs (Butler (1985)). It was found that a vehicle fly-
sult, an experimental approach to this problem at least in the ing in ground effect achieves a lift/drag ratio which is about twice
preliminary stage of design is still preferred. that of a conventional aircraft. These studies also showed that,
In this paper we report the results of the experimental cam- to keep wave impact loads at acceptably low levels during takeoff
paign carried out in the frame of the Brite-Euram Seabus-Hydaer and landing, a WIG vehicle needs a low stall speed. This requires
Project, a research program that aimed to explore the feasibil- a low wing loading, which results in a low cruise speed and thus in
ity of such a vehicle. This test campaign performed at INSEAN relatively poor performance. The most successful achievements in
focused on the hydrofoils of the Seabus-Hydaer vehicle. By mea- this field were gained in the former Soviet Union, where a number
suring the forces acting on these submerged control surfaces for of especially large ekranoplanes with a large takeoff weight and a
different speeds and scales (including also some cavitation tests), high flying speed had been designed, produced and field tested.
tentative values of the forces acting upon the full-scale vehicle at During the 1970s the power-augmented-ram (PAR) phenomenon
cruise speeds have been issued, overcoming the unavoidable lack was discovered, which significantly enhanced the performance of
of similarity in the performed tests. Different combinations of the WIG concept. It is based on a jet or propeller in front of the
conditions were investigated during the tests, in particular differ- wing that is blowing under the wing, with the efflux nearly stag-
ent angles of attack of the control surface and various incoming nated under the wing by use of endplates and a trailing-edge flap.
flow directions. Movies and pictures of the cavitation phenomena At low speeds, a static pressure occurs under the wings, which
and wave patterns have been taken and analyzed, as a basis to lifts the vehicle out of the water. The use of this phenomenon
physically explain the results obtained. is called the power-augmented-ram wing-in-ground effect (PAR-
WIG).

KEY WORDS: Seabus, experimental testing, force measure- All the studies in this field, which we have just referred to,

ments, scale laws followed an approach to the problem that might be labeled as
aeronautical, i.e., the aim was to make an airplane to fly at
a such a low altitude in order to experience the wing-in-ground
effect.
INTRODUCTION
On the other hand, recently, high-speed vessels like SESs
In recent years, the request of ultra high-speed vehicles has aimed to exploit the dynamic force of carrying surfaces in or-
led to new concepts for transporters cruising at speeds beyond der to partially lift the craft and decrease the water resistance.

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