Towed Vertical Surface-Piercing Cylinders

Surface-piercing cylinders differ from fully submerged cylinders due to the generation of surface wakes and under increasing flow velocities the formation of a ventilated pocket in the lee of the cylinder, both of which grow with increasing velocity, with concomitant effects on the hydrodynamic loading. A series of experiments were conducted in the Towing Tank located at the Australian Maritime College (AMC). The models were attached to the towing carriage, in the standard top-down method, where the free-end tip was fully immersed in the fluid.The relative length of submergence, or immersed aspect ratio (L/D) and end conditions of the cylinder with respect to tip vortex drag effects may also impact the hydrodynamic loads and wake formation. Laboratory testing of surface-piercing cylinders to date has predominantly been confined to characterising the wakes shed from a rigid cylinder cantilevered down into the water from a towing tank carriage, which under certain test conditions will also exhibit significant Vortex-Induced-Vibration (VIV), though not adequately identified and accounted for in its magnification of drag and wake.