Go NUTTS 2015 in CORTONA, ITALY

Evening reception
Evening reception

In September, the 18th Numerical Towing Tank Symposium (NuTTS ’15) took place in Cortona, Italy. Around 60 people attended the conference from various universities, institutes and companies around the world — particularly from Europe and Japan. The University of Southampton was well-represented by five researchers. The annual conference focuses on the development and application of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), specifically in the maritime industry.
The key topics this year were overset-mesh techniques, cavitation modelling, acoustic analysis and propeller-hull interactions. There were also interesting presentations on turbulence modelling and free-surface modelling. Some challenging applications were presented: including analysis of fluctuating updrafts above helidecks; drag predictions of dolphin-inspired blubber coatings; and performance analysis of semi-displacement luxury yachts.
View from the conference lecture room
View from the conference lecture room

Three papers were presented by the FSI group. Joseph Banks presented work on experimental and computational methods for bend-twist coupled foils. Gabriel Weymouth demonstrated real-time, intuitive CFD based on Immersed Boundary methods. Artur Lidtke presented a joint paper with MARIN (Maritime Research Institute Netherlands) on propeller acoustics based on the Ffows Williams-Hawkings equations. The contributions from Southampton were well received and inspired lively conversation.