A numerical investigation of cambered wedge impact using the Lattice Boltzmann method

Wedge bodies impacting on calm water and therefore inducing water jet spray are numerically studied in this paper. A highly accurate adaptive grid algorithm detects and maps the spray droplets and pronounced spray characteristics from cambered wedges compared to an experimentally studied wedge having fixed deadrise angle. A Lattice Boltzmann code is used to detect the differences in impact loads and computed pressure readings along the cambered section show that varying a deadrise angle of cambered wedges displaces water volume fraction faster than a straight wedge, and thus can be correlated with the spray patterns. Pile-up coefficients of the impacting wedges show good agreement with the experimentally predicted values from other research studies. Oblique impacts of cambered wedges are also studied and the pressure readings along the wedges are found to dictate the outcome of the spray patterns. Two special types of wedges with fixed initial deadrise angle but varying chine angle show that more bulk liquid transferred as thicker spray droplets exiting the wedge chine are produced when the angle skews smaller and consequently the pressure peaks rise due to added constrictions.