• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.412-422
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• 2012

Air lubrication techniques for frictional drag reduction on ships have been proposed by numerous researchers since the 19th century. However, these techniques have not been widely adopted as questions persist about their drag reduction performance beyond the laboratory, as well as energy and economic cost-benefit. This paper draws on data from the literature to consider the suitability of air lubrication for large ocean going and U.S. Great Lakes ships, by establishing the basic energy economic calculations and presenting results for a hypothetical air lubricated ship. All the assumptions made in the course of the analysis are clearly stated so that they can be refined when considering application of air lubrication to a specific ship. The analysis suggests that, if successfully implemented, both air layer and partial cavity drag reduction could lead to net energy savings of 10 to 20%, with corresponding reductions in emissions.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.251-257
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• 2000

District heating and cooling systems offer highly efficient energy utilization and maintenance by centralizing heat management. More pumping power, however, is required because the water has to travel long distance from heat source to the users. In the present study, a trace of drag reduction additives is added to the District Cooling system to achieve a significant drag reduction and save pumping power. Water-soluble polymers, surfactants, and environment-friendly degradable polymers are used as effective drag reducing additives. Time dependent percent drag reductions are compared for various additive solutions at 100 wppm concentration for different water velocity. Without as an anionic surfactant, copolymer was most effective in percent drag reduction. It is found that there exists an optimal condition when copolymer is mixed with SDS. An environment-friendly degradable polymer, xanthan gum, is found to be a significant drag reduction additive. Ice slurry systems, can give less pressure drops compared with chilled water system for certain condtions. Drag reduction additives were also effective for the ice slurry system.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.8-18
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• 2015

Reduction of the fuel oil consumption and corresponding greenhouse gas exhausted from ships is an important issue for today's ship design and shipping. Several concepts and devices on the superstructure of a container ship were suggested and tested in the wind tunnel to estimate the air drag reduction. As a preliminary performance evaluation, air drag contributions of each part of the superstructure and containers were estimated based on RANS simulation respectively. Air drag reduction efficiency of shape modification and add-on devices on the superstructure and containers was also estimated. Gap-protectors between containers and a visor in front of upper deck were found to be most effective for drag reduction. Wind tunnel tests had been carried out to confirm the drag reduction performance between the baseline(without any modification) configuration and two modified superstructure configurations which were designed and chosen based on the computation results. The test results with the modified configurations show considerable aerodynamic drag reduction, especially the gap-protectors between containers show the largest reduction for the wide range of heading angles. RANS computations for three configurations were performed and compared with the wind tunnel tests. Computation result shows the similar drag reduction trend with experiment for small heading angles. However, the computation result becomes less accurate as heading angle is increasing where the massively separated flow is spread over the leeward side.

• Journal of Ship and Ocean Technology
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.15-22
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• 1999

It is known that lubrication effect of an air cavity can reduced a drag of a ship. The present study intends to utilize the phenomena for the drag reduction of a passenger ship now operating in a lake. A scaled model of the model when air cavities are formed under the bottom of the model. Model experiments have been performed to determine adequate air supply rates, proper shapes and locations of air supply nozzles. It is shown that energy saving of mere than 10% can be achieved at the design speed of the ship even after excluding additional power consumed for air supplying. Multiple air supply nozzles, if allocated properly, are more effective than single one in resistance reduction of the ship.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.510-520
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• 2019

To investigate the morphology characteristics of air layer in the air cavity, a numerical method with the combination of RANS equations and VOF two-phase-flow model is proposed for a plate with air cavity. Based on the model above, the dynamic and developmental process of air layer in the air cavity is studied. Numerical results indicate that the air layer in the plate's air cavity exhibits the dynamic state of morphology and the wavelength of air layer becomes larger with the increasing speed. The morphology of air layer agrees with the Froude similarity law and the formation of the air layer is not affected by the parameters of the cavity, however, the wave pattern of the air layer is influenced by the parameters of the cavity. The stable air layer under the air cavity is important for the resistance reduction for the air layer drag reduction.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.361-372
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• 2019

The flow pattern of air layers and skin-friction drag reduction by air injection are investigated to find the suitable multiphase flow model using unstructured finite-volume CFD solver for the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. In the present computations, two different multiphase flow modeling approaches, such as the Volume of Fluid (VOF) and the Eulerian Multi-Phase (EMP), are adopted to investigate their performances in resolving the two-phase flow pattern and in estimating the frictional drag reduction. First of all, the formation pattern of air layers generated by air injection through a circular opening on the bottom of a flat plate are investigated. These results are then compared with those of MMkiharju's experimental results. Subsequently, the quantitative ratios of skin-friction drag reduction including the behavior of air layers, within turbulent boundary layers in large scale and at high Reynolds number conditions, are investigated under the same conditions as the model test that has been conducted in the US Navy's William B. Morgan Large Cavitation Channel (LCC). From these results, it is found that both VOF and EMP models have similar capability and accuracy in capturing the topology of ventilated air cavities so called'air pockets and branches'. However, EMP model is more favorable in predicting quantitatively the percentage of frictional drag reduction by air injection.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.427-438
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• 2018

The reduction of $CO_2$ emissions has been a key target in the marine industry since the IMO's MEPC published its findings in 2009. Air lubrication method is one of the mature technologies for commercialization to reduce the frictional resistance and enhance fuel efficiency of ships. Air layer is formed by the coalescence of the injected air bubbles beyond a certain air flow rate. In this study, a model ship (${\lambda}=33.33$) of a 50,000 ton medium range tanker is equipped with an air lubrication system. The experiments were conducted in the 100 m long towing tank facility at the Pusan National University. By selecting optimal air injector configuration and distribution ratio between two injectors, the total resistance of model $R_{TM}$ was able to be reduced down to 18.1% in the model scale. Key issue was found to suppress the sideway leakage of injected air by appropriate injection parameters.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.58 no.3
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• pp.144-157
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• 2021

Brake Horse Power (BHP) reduction ratios by air injection to the underside of the hull surface in an actual ship are predicted using an unstructured finite-volume CFD solver and compared with the sea trial results. In addition, air lubrication system installed on the existing vessel is investigated to find a good solution for additional drag reduction. As a results, it is found that the thickness of the air layer should be minimized within a stable range while securing the area covered by the air layer as much as possible. Furthermore, the amount of frictional drag reduced by air injection is found to be independent of surface roughness and still effective on rough surface. Based on the results of this study, it is expected that systematic and reliable air lubrication system can be designed and evaluated using the proposed method.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.198-207
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• 1996

It is well known that drag reduction in single phase liquid flow is affected by polymer material, molecular weight, polymer concentration, pipe diameter, and flow velocity. Drag reduction in two phase flow can be applied to the transport of crude oil, phase change system such as chemical reactor, pool and boiling flow, and to present cavitation which occurs in pump impellers. But the research of drag reduction in two phase flow is not sufficient. The purpose of the present work is to evaluate the drag reduction by measuring pressure drop, void fraction, mean liquid velocity, and turbulent intensity whether polymer is added in the horizontal two phase system or not. Experiment has been conducted in a test section with the inner diameter of 24mm and the length of 1,500mm. The polymer materials used are two kinds of polyacrylamide[PAAM] and co-polymer[A611P]. The polymer concentration was varied with 50, 100 and 200 ppm under the same experimental conditions. Experimental results showed that the drag reduction of co-polymer is higher than that of polyacrylamide. Mean liquid velocities increased as polymer was added, and turbulent intensity decreased inversely near the pipe wall.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.359-365
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• 1995

The drag reduction phenomenon with an additives of surfactant(STAC, stearlytrimethyl ammonium chloride) and polymer(PEO, polyethlene oxide) was investigated in fully developed turbulent pipe and channel flows at various low Reynolds numbers as well as very low additives concentration. A maximum of 70% drag reduction compared with plain water flow was found. This maximum drag reduction percentage obtained with surfactant solution was slightly higher than that of the Virk's asymptote in polymer solution.