Study on the influence of wave surface effect of airfoil aerodynamic characteristics by a simplified method

The aerodynamic characteristics of airfoil experience variations when it operates close to the water surface. Based on the computational fluid dynamics software STAR-CCM+, this study proposes a particle velocity boundary method to simulate the wave surface effect by defining water particle velocities at the inlet boundary. The amplitude–frequency response characteristics of airfoil are analyzed and compared with those obtained using the volume of fluid method. The results of the simplified method are found to accurately reflect the time-varying characteristics of wave surface effect. The amplitude deviations in this paper within the range 5%–15%. The amplitude-frequency response characteristics of aerodynamic coefficients exhibit peak function distributions reaching maximum amplitudes at the ratio of encounter wavelength—to—chord length of 1–2. The peaks in the aerodynamic coefficient response occur at a higher frequency than those of the wave-induced airflow disturbance velocity. This indicates that the influence of wave frequency characteristics is primarily exerted through the wave-induced airflow velocity and the extent of the gain zone.