Ben Pickering, a 3rd Year Ship Science student, has been undertaking experimental towing tank testing of a model scale sailing hydrofoil.  The aim is to provide validation data for computational predictions of vertical lift, drag and sideforce.

Ben developed a system to measure the vertical forces and used the existing dynamometry to acquire the drag and sideforce.  The rig allowed for various angles of yaw, rake and cant of the foil.  Below is a video of a single run in the towing tank.

There are limitations to the scale of hydrofoil that can be tested due to the large rolling moments produced compared to normal ship resistance testing.  The next stage will be to investigate foiling specific dynamometry for use at larger scales and the measurement of deformations visible in the video above.