motorboat CFD
 

I'm an aeronautical engineer specialized in motorboat aerodynamics. The very small company I work for designs quite extreme racing motorboats and would like to purchase a CFD software to improve the safety and performance of the boats. The requrements are:

- PC, Windows based. - Easy user interface. - As good accuracy as possible for at a reasonable price(about 5000$) - Subsonic and not time-dependent flow - Preferably all-in-one; grid generation, calculation and visualization. - Compatibility with common CAD-softwares formats.

We are particularly interested in the stability and lift/drag characteristics of the boats.

I would be very pleased to know what kind of software you would recommend!?

Thank you very much!

Re: motorboat CFD
 

Do you need to worry about air-water interaction, or can you neglect the air drag when compared to the water (hull) drag?

You might want to do a Google search on cfd codes or something like that (or look at list elsewhere on this web page), locate the vendors and drop them a quick e-mail.

I have the idea that a lease for one of the mail-line codes runs over $1000/month. Guess you'll know the answer to that soon enough.

Good luck!

Re: motorboat CFD
 

Since we're talking over 100 mile/h air drag is not negligible. We are not interested in air-water interaction. These boats hardly touch the water when going at full speed. So, some kind of CFD used by small companies designing small and relatively slow planes should be something for us I guess. Have an idea? Please, let me know!

Re: motorboat CFD
 

For this price you have (as far as i know) two choice :

EFD.Lab, low price cfd software which is compatible with most CAD package and very user friendly

hire a specialized company which will do the job for you.

Best regards

Alain