Dead-Downwind Faster Than The Wind (DDWFTTW) Analysis

Mark Drela 1 Jan 09

t
water turbine eciency

g
gearing/transmission eciency

p
air prop total eciency

i
air prop induced eciency

v
air prop prole eciency

swirl
air prop swirl eciency
W
V
V
VW F
p
F
t
p
P
t
P
boat speed
wind speed air prop
water turbine
apparent speeds
p
R
p

Velocities
The gure above shows a boat moving with water-speed V , in the same direction as a slower wind
speed W. The water turbine therefore sees a water velocity of V , while the air prop sees an air
velocity of V W, both opposite the boat motion.
From the denition of turbine and propeller eciencies:
P
t
= F
t
V
t
(1)
P
p
= F
p
(V W)/
p
(2)
From the denition of the gear/transmission eciency:
P
p
= P
t

g
(3)
Substituting for P
p
and P
t
above gives
F
p
(V W)/
p
= F
t
V
t

g
(4)
or F
p
= F
t
V
V W

t

p
(5)
The net thrust available for overcoming the total vehicle water and air drag is therefore
F
net
= F
p
F
t
= F
t
_
V
V W

t

p
1
_
(6)
which can be positive provided the following holds:
V
V W

t

p
> 1 (requirement for DDWFTTW) (7)
1
Substituting F
t
= F
p
F
net
in equation (6) allows solving explicitly for the excess thrust F
net
.
F
net
= F
p
_
1 +
_
V
V W

t

p
1
_
1
_
1
(8)
Air Prop Eciency Breakdown
The relation (8) above is not useful for initial-design estimation, since V W and
p
are both close
to zero near the static-thrust condition, and their ratio is crucial. To resolve this problem, the air
prop eciency is broken down into a viscous (prole-drag) eciency
v
, and an inviscid (or induced)
eciency
i
taken from actuator-disk theory. The latter is modied by including a swirl eciency

swirl
which accounts for non-axial velocities in the slipstream.

p
=
i

v
(9)

i
=
2
1 +
_
1 +
2F
p
(V W)
2
A
p
1

swirl
_
1/2
(10)
The F
net
relation (8) then takes the following equivalent form.
F
net
= F
p
_

_
1 +
_

_
2V
t

v
(V W) +
_
(V W)
2
+
2F
p
A
p
1

swirl
_
1/2
1
_

_
1
_

_
1
(11)
The very uncertain
p
has now been eliminated, and the four remaining eciencies can be realisti-
cally estimated a priori. Conservative values might be the following.

swirl
0.95 (12)

v
0.90 (13)

g
0.90 (14)

t
0.70 (15)
The net thrust can now be quickly estimated as a function of the air prop thrust and the few other
parameters, which is particularly useful for preliminary design of a DDWFTTW vehicle.
Highly-Loaded Air Prop Limit
When the vehicle is crossing the DDWFTTW threshold, the air props relative airspeed V W is
near zero, which means its operating in hover mode. Near this important condition the disk-
loading term 2F
p
/A
p
dominates the V W terms in relation (11), which can then be simplied as
follows.
F
net
= F
p
_

_
1 +
_
_
V R
p

t

v
_
2
F
p

swirl
_
1/2
1
_
_
1
_

_
1
(16)
This is simpler and somewhat conservative, so it may be useful for preliminary sizing.
2
Dimensional Analysis
For optimization purposes, its useful to introduce the following dimensionless parameters which
characterize the operation of any DDW machine.
Excess-thrust ratio: F =
F
net
F
p
(17)
Apparent velocity ratio: Z =
V W
V
(18)
Modied air prop thrust coecient: C

T
=
2F
p
V
2
A
p
(19)
The modied thrust coecient is normalized with the vehicle speed V , rather than the more con-
ventional prop tip speed
p
R
p
. Ultimately these are related through the turbines advance ratio
and the transmission gearing, although these details can be worked out later and do not need to be
considered at this stage. With the denitions above, the net-thrust equation (11) can be put into
the following dimensionless form:
F =
_

_
1 +
_

_
2
t

v
Z +
_
Z
2
+
C

swirl
_
1/2
1
_

_
1
_

_
1
(20)
Net Thrust-Drag Balance
The retarding drag force associated with supporting the weight W of the vehicle can be character-
ized by a resistance coecient C
r
. For a wheeled wehicle this C
r
would be the rolling-resistance
coecient, and for a hydrofoil boat this would be the drag/lift ratio. For a buoyancy hull, C
r
would be some function of the Froude and Reynolds numbers, whose details are not considered
here. Adding on the air resistance, quantied by the air drag area CDA, gives the net thrust-drag
balance as follows.
F
net
= WC
r
+
1
2
(V W)
2
CDA (21)
F =
W
F
p
C
r
+ Z
2
1
C

T
CDA
A
p
(22)
Using this to replace F in (20) we get an implicit relation for Z.
W
F
p
C
r
+ Z
2
1
C

T
CDA
A
p
=
_

_
1 +
_

_
2
t

v
Z +
_
Z
2
+
C

swirl
_
1/2
1
_

_
1
_

_
1
(23)
This can be numerically solved for Z if all the other parameters are given. Once Z is known, the
corresponding vehicle/wind speed ratio can be determined.
V
W
=
1
1 Z
(24)
3
Numerical Investigation
Equation (23) together with (24) denes the vehicle/wind speed ratio as a function of the following
parameters.
V
W
= f (C

T
,
net
,
swirl
, C

r
, CDA

) (25)
where
net
=
t

v
(26)
C

r
=
W
F
p
C
r
(27)
CDA

=
CDA
A
p
(28)
With a reasonable constraint on the vehicle length, which is needed to balance the moment of
the high thrust line, the ratio W/F
p
cannot be made much smaller than 1.0 or so. Hence C

r
is
comparable to C
r
itself. The drag of the prop tower sets a lower limit on CDA

.
It is useful to now examine the sensitivity of V/W to these parameters. The plot below shows V/W
versus C

T
, which can be strongly controlled by varying the air-prop diameter, for four values of

net
, which depends mainly on the water-turbine and transmission eciencies. The assumed values
for the other parameters might be typical for a well-streamlined water vehicle with a good low-drag
hull.

swirl
= 0.95 C

r
= 0.15 CDA

= 0.04
Given that
t
= 0.7 is not easy for a small vehicle, reaching even
net
= 0.4 might be challenging.
Hence, achieving the DDWFTTW condition V/W > 1 would be quite dicult, but possibly doable
with careful component design and matching.
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4
V

/

W
CT
Vehicle/Wind speed ratio for eta_swirl = 0.95 , Cr = 0.15 , CDA = 0.04
eta_net = 0.2
eta_net = 0.4
eta_net = 0.6
eta_net = 0.8
Wheeled Vehicles
All the above denitions and equations easily apply to a wheeled ground vehicle, where the water
4
turbine is replaced by the wheels driven by the ground. If the wheel slip is negligible, then we have

t
=1. Also, C
r
now becomes the conventional rolling-resistance coecient, which is dramatically
smaller than the C
r
achievable by a hull. All other quantities should remain roughly the same.
The plot below shows V/W versus C

T
and
net
, with the following assumed remaining parameters.

swirl
= 0.95 C

r
= 0.02 CDA

= 0.04
Since for this case
t
1, achieving
net
= 0.6 or more is realistic. This conrms that the
DDWFTTW condition V/W > 1 is achievable with a wheeled vehicle without too much diculty.
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4
V

/

W
CT
Vehicle/Wind speed ratio for eta_swirl = 0.95 , Cr = 0.02 , CDA = 0.04
eta_net = 0.2
eta_net = 0.4
eta_net = 0.6
eta_net = 0.8
5