CAPE HORN ENGINEERING

With a proven track record in yacht racing design, we apply our cutting edge specialist CFD simulation technology and expertise to a wide variety of marine vessels including superyachts, commercial ships, cargo ships, power boats and service operation vessels, to save fuel, reduce emissions, improve performance, comfort and safety.  We can also assist naval architects to help meet requirements for decarbonisation.

Specialist CFD Technology

CFD technology is a crucial support for naval architects and design engineers to optimise their designs for many critical elements. Our specialist expertise can improve designs and provide technology solutions for a variety of commercial ship vessels.

Our CFD methods cover a large variety of flow behaviours and includes free-surface flow, viscous flow, full-scale performance prediction, fluid-structure-interaction and dynamic behaviour. We use advanced visualisation techniques to understand the flow features and to share that knowledge with clients. We post-process the simulations in a way that the designers obtain load cases and internal forces for structural analysis of their designs. For extensive design campaigns, we optimise hull and appendage shapes using modern optimisation techniques like neural networks response surface models and optimisation algorithms.

We have developed a simulation workflow to directly compare the efficiency of wind assisted ship propulsion (WASP) devices. The simulations take into account the most important effects of adding the wings, Flettner rotors or any other type of wind powered device to the vessel. Both the water flow experienced by the hull at a given vessel speed and the air flow experienced by the WASP devices, hull top sides and superstructure, at a certain wind speed and direction, are modelled simultaneously in a single simulation.