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Cockpit design affect on Lift/Drag of powerboats.
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Figure 1 - friction drag and profile drag contribute to total aerodynamic drag of various cockpit, cowling and covered areas of powerboats.

Types of Cockpit Configurations
Open cockpit with windcreen

Center Console cockpit

Cuddy Cabin cockpit

Streamlined cockpit

Canopy/Covered cockpit

Bowrider, Wheelhouse cockpit

Rear cockpit cover

Rear engine Fairing
  		  
Advanced aerodynamic analysis gives highly accurate hull Lift, Drag, including cockpit/cowling drag contributions to powerboat performance.

AR® has developed analysis that calculates Lift, Drag of hull configurations that includes the intricacies of cockpit/windscreen designs.

Cockpit Aerodynamic Lift and Drag
Deck surfaces can contribute markedly to overall aerodynamic lift of some hull configurations.  This aerodynamic lift can be significant when effectively designed on a performance hull, particularly as to their contributions to reduce required hydrodynamic lift of the planing surfaces.  While aerodynamic drags from deck surfaces, cockpit arrangement, fairings, covers, etc are also significant, the overall benefits can still be notable.  The overall lift and drag contributions and their affects on other contributing Lift and Drag forces must be considered as part of the overall hull forces balance.

Affects on aero lift and aero drags can be considerable for some cockpit designs, and thus should be considered as an integrated part of the hull performance.

Effects of friction drag and profile drag generated by various cockpit, cowling and cover arrangements on all types of powerboat applications is developed by AR® and Jim Russell.

 

The results are an accurate representation of aerodynamic drag associated with performance powerboat cockpit/cowl/appendage arrangements, using Russell's analysis. Cockpit and windscreen configurations can be defined such that accurate aerodynamic analysis can accurately determine the integrated affect on overall hull Lift and Draf forces including dynamic stability. Different cockpit designs/orientations and positioning affect the friction, profile and cavity drags that are generated by the hull.

 

Types of cockpit configurations
(TBDP©/VBDP© software includes + typical cockpit style templates to make your customization easy)...

  • Open cockpit

  • Windscreen Cockpit

  • Canopy/Fairing cockpit

  • Canopy-Offshore

  • Streamlined cockpit

  • Windscreen

  • Rear cockpit cover

  • Rear engine Fairing

  • Cuddy Cabin configuration

  • Center Console configuration

  • Wheelhouse cabin

  • Bowrider cockpit

  • Wheelhouse cockpit

[and combinations of above]

 

Design considerations
Cockpit dimensions relative to deck and hull configurations impact cockpit drags and influence other hull Lift & Drag contributors. Following should be considered in integrated drag analysis...

  • cockpit width

  • cockpit length

  • hull width/length

  • windscreen height

  • open/covered forward deck area

  • rear covered area

  • canopy/Fairing width/height

  • cabin profile/bluff dimensions

  • engine fairing

Cockpit Cavity Drag
 AR® has applied unique cavity drag analysis to the open cockpit areas of high performance powerboats. His analysis shows that open cockpit areas produce more aerodynamic drag than the covered cockpit of same area. AR® has applied unique cavity drag analysis to the open cockpit areas of high performance powerboats. 
 
    Russell applies these advancements in newest versions of AR's TBDP©/VBDP© performance analysis software.
 
[more about AR's research  more about AR's publications and technical articles/papers]

© Copyright 2015 by Jim Russell and AeroMarine Research® - all rights reserved. 
Material from this website may not be copied or used or redistributed, in whole or in part, without the specific written consent of Jim Russell or AeroMarine Research.

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Material from this website may be not copied or used or redistributed, in whole or in part, without specific written consent of Jim Russell or AeroMarine Research®.