Design of the scoop for the underwater exhaust system

Abstract

Feadship yachts are designed for the leisure and cruising across the oceans. These luxury yachts are mostly powered by diesel engines or in some cases, a diesel-hybrid system. To prevent the inconvenience and the discomfort arising from the diesel exhaust gases for passengers, Feadship yachts are equipped with an underwater exhaust outlet. These underwater exhaust outlets are located on the side of the hull close to the dynamic waterline. It consists of an external appendage called "scoop" which creates a low pressure region for the exhaust outlet. During recent sea trials of the Feadship yachts, undesirable variations in the exhaust back-pressure were observed at the underwater outlet. These undesirable variations led to a situation with either too high back-pressure or too low back-pressure. An excessive back-pressure will increase the fuel consumption and will damage the diesel engine. Contrary, an extremely low back-pressure will give a visible exhaust flow above water thereby discolouring the hull and contaminating the deck with exhaust gases and steam.

An ideal scoop design would substantially reduce the above described problems. To investigate the optimal design for a scoop, a numerical method will be used. The method applicable in this study will be the Mutiphase Flow models from the commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software called Star CCM+. A multiphase fluid interaction between the exhaust gases and sea water will be examined to find the physical phenomenon affecting the back-pressure at the underwater outlet. In return, this phenomenon will be useful for a thorough analysis of the different scoop designs and how this design could impact the back-pressure. Furthermore, the validation of the numerical method will be carried out against the data procured from sea trials of the yachts with current scoop design.

To conclude, design recommendations for an optimal scoop geometry will be provided such that it can reduce the excessive back pressure, have a low resistance and prevent the discolouring of the hull.