August 30, 2021: "CFD for Hydrodynamic Design and Analysis of Marine Vehicles"
- August 30, 2021
- 4:00 p.m.
- For Zoom credentials, please email cloan@vt.edu
- Dr. Stefano Brizzolara, VT-AOE
- Faculty Host: Gregory Young
Abstract: The theme of the talk is use of computational fluid dynamics in ship design, illustrating results obtained in a variety of applied and fundamental research projects carried out at the innovative Ship design lab and the Center of Marine Autonomy and Robotics at Virginia Tech, under the direction of Dr. Brizzolara.
Well validated CFD tools open new possibilities to explore unconventional designs that previously were limited by the cost and time frame of experimental test campaigns. Obviously, numerical models need to reproduce the correct physics within engineering accuracy. For this reason they need to be thoroughly validated, to be applied with certain level of confidence for the design. Development, application and validation of CFD models in view of design of advanced ships and marine vehicles is the common research denominator that characterize Dr. Brizzolara’s more than 20 years long research.
So, where are we in this respect? What are the capabilities of CFD tools and their uncertainty level in the marine field? What types of vessels have these tools helped to design and what difference have they made?
We will answer to these questions, by illustration of a series of examples. Applications will span from high speed dual-operation Catamaran-SWATH vessels for support of offshore wind farms, very high speed hydrofoil assisted crafts, seakeeping of catamarans with flexible hulls, AI (artificial intelligence) assisted optimization of surface ships and submarines, with some final touch on new ocean wave-energy conversion device that much benefits from lessons learnt in naval architecture, that are sometime neglected in this new field of Ocean Engineering.
Bio: Dr. Brizzolara, Associate Professor in the Aerospace and Ocean Engineering department of Virginia Tech, Associate Department Head for grad progran and Crofton Faculty Fellow. He directs the VT-iShip laboratory and serves as associate director of the Center of Marine Autonomy and Robotics. He has been a Peabody Visiting Associate Professor in the MIT dept. of Mechanical Engineering. Research interests include CFD, design of advanced marine vehicles, design of high performance marine propulsors, and in general numerical hydrodynamics for ship design. Author of more than 250 peer reviewed papers, designated inventor of 8 patents for innovative ship designs or ship systems. He has received the 2021 Corfton Faculty Fellow award, 2018 Calder Prize for best paper on the subject of high speed crafts, 2016 Excellence in Review for the IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, and the 2015 Mandel’s Prize for Excellence in Hydrofoil Research advising.