Simple simulation software for boat design?
Hello.
Actually it's not a boat I'm wishing to design, it's a raft.
But, it's a raft with daggerboards and sail - that's where it becomes useful to play around with a simulation.
As for the sail, I understand the basic theory and solutions, so, that part is not necessary to simulate. A constant flow, water running by beneat the raft, should suffice.
I wish to play around with how to make the raft turn about and change direction based on the daggerboards.
For finding this out, I could use:
-Constant flow coming, eg. from above
-A rectangular representation of the raft, able to turn around it's midpoint and show the current force affecting it, and in which direction
-For input, dipping the daggerboards into the water, or lifting them up again.
Daggerboards are much like keels, or centerboards. The supposed size here are much like an actual board, 1 inch broad, 1 foot long. The amount of height inserted into the water varies.. this is what results in an ability to steer.
They are not rudders - they cannot be angled relative to the raft, but are always in the same position.
It seems to me that the simplest solution would require some newtonian physics for the raft-and-boards representation, calculation of forces etc, but also flow dynamics as for the lift and drag created by the water running by the raft and its boards.
Initially, I have found and installed OpenFoam. It's a free, opensource solution.
Unfortunately it's pretty complicated - I can edit setup files easily, but.. I have no idea how to state my problem in Foam's terms.
Is there a more intuitive alternative available?
