COMPUTATIONAL PREDICTION OF THE RESISTANCE OF THE FLOATPLANE AT VARIOUS TRIM ANGLES

The prediction of the total resistance occurred during operation of a floatplane on the water surface is an important aspect in developing the floater as well as the engine power required. Theoretically, the trim angle of the floater may affect the total resistance. This paper intends to find the optimal trim angle for the take-off operation using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software. The floater set up under a fixed trim angle includes 2^◦, 5^◦ and 10^◦ taken in simulation at five different speeds between 9.21 m/s and 15.87 m/s. In one case of 2^◦ trim angle, the floater model test has been carried out in a tow tank laboratory to validate the accuracy of the numerical result. Comparison of both results has a good fit with an average error of 2.27%. In the final simulation results, the optimum trim angle is 5^◦, which produces the total resistance less than 2^◦ and 10^◦ of the trim angle with average differences of 9.21% and 50.46% for all speeds, respectively.