Hydrofoil Craft

The hull of a hydrofoil craft is kept completely clear off water at high speed by the
hydrodynamic lift of its foils. The lift developed by a foil is fundamentally different from the lift
in a planing craft. In a foil, the major part of the lift arises from the negative pressures on its upper
surface. The lift in a planing craft is generated by the positive pressures on its bottom (planing)
surface.

There are many types of foils and foil arrangements in a hydrofoil craft. The foils in a
hydrofoil craft can be divided into two main types, viz. surface piercing foils and fully submerged
foils. Surface piercing foils may be arranged as dihedral, anhedral or ladder foils. A hydrofoil craft
usually has two foils or sets of foils, one forward and one aft, which together produce the
hydrodynamic lift necessary to support the weight of the craft and raise it clear of water. The lift
distribution between the forward and aft foils, dependent on the longitudinal centre of gravity of
the craft, may fall into three types: (i) conventional or aeroplane arrangement in which the
forward foil provides most of the lift, (ii) the Canard arrangement in which the after foil provides
most of the lift, and (iii) the balanced or tandem arrangement in which the forward and aft
foils share the lift more equally than in the first two arrangements. The foils may be in one piece
extending from side to side, or be split into port and starboard foils. Fig. 5 shows two typical
hydrofoil craft geometries, whereas Figs. 6, 7 and 8 illustrate various types of foil configurations
and arrangements.
Fig. 5 Hydrofoil craft geometry: (a) surface piercing foils in canard configuration;
(b) fully submerged foils in conventional aeroplane configuration.

Fig. 6 Typical arrangements for surface piercing hydrofoil systems.

Fig. 7 Various types of foils.

 Fig. 8 Hydrofoil ship configuration.
It is necessary to provide a hydrofoil craft with a system for varying the lift of the foils for
controlling the position of the craft with respect to water compensating for varying payloads, for
becoming foil forms (take off) or for emergency stopping by coming off the foils (crash
landing). Variable foil lift is also required for stability in terms of heel and trim, and also for
course keeping, manoeuvring and motion control in waves. The lift L developed by a foil is given
by :

L 12 AV 2 . C L

where is the density of water, A the area of the planform and V the velocity of the foil with

respect to water. CL is the lift coefficient and depends upon the shape of the foil section and the
angle of incidence. The lift produced by a foil at a given speed thus depends upon its area, its
section shape and the angle of incidence (angle of attack). In a fully submerged foil, the area of
the foil remains constant, but in surface piercing foils the area of the foil increases as it goes down
into water and the resulting increase in lift causes the foil to rise, so that surface piercing foils are
inherently self-stabilising with respect to their depth in water at constant speed. For controlling the
lift of fully submerged foils, it is necessary to provide either trailing edge flap control or angle of
attack control as shown in Fig. 9.
Fig. 9 Control of hydrodynamic force by trailing edge flap and
variable incidence angle control.
The lift produced by a hydrofoil reduces sharply when the foil rises to come close to the
surface of water, and this then causes the foil to go down into water. This depth effect can be
used to stabilise the depth of a foil below the surface, but because of the small range of depths over
which this effect is significant; it cannot be used reliably in a seaway.

Since a foil produces most of its lift through the negative pressures on its upper surface, it
can happen that the pressure at some points on the foil surface may drop to values close to the
vapour pressure of water. This will cause the water at these points to vaporise and form cavities
filled with water vapour, and these cavities will then collapse at points where the pressure is higher.
This phenomenon of cavitation causes a number of adverse effects including a reduction in lift
because the reduction in pressure is limited to the vapour pressure, and noise and erosion due to
the collapse of the cavities. It is therefore desirable to take steps to avoid cavitation as far as
possible. For a given lift, this may be done by increasing the depth of the foil below water, or by
increasing the area of the foil so that the magnitudes of the negative pressure is reduced and by
adopting a foil section shape which gives a uniform pressure distribution without an excessive
negative pressure peak.
 At the same time, it is necessary to ensure a high lift-drag ratio so that high foil borne
speeds can be attained without requiring excessive powers. Beyond a certain speed, it is impossible
to avoid cavitation on the foils, and in that case the foil section is given a wedge shape which
promotes cavitation, creating a cavity starting at the leading edge and extending well behind the
foil. Typical hydrofoil section shapes are shown in Fig. 10.

Fig. 10. Hydrofoil section shapes

Another problem sometimes encountered by hydrofoils is the phenomenon of air

entrainment by which air is drawn down from the atmosphere to the low pressure region of the foil
resulting in a sudden loss of lift. Air drawing usually occurs with surface piercing foils in the
region close to the air-water interface. It can also occur on fully submerged foils if a path exists
for air to flow from the atmosphere to the upper surface of the foil, e.g. through a tube in the foil
supporting strut enclosing the incidence controlling shaft. Air drawing can be prevented by
providing spoilers or obstacles to the flow of air from the atmosphere to the low pressure regions
of the foils. Sometimes, air is deliberately introduced into the low pressure region to create an air
filled cavity on a supercavitating foil during the acceleration of the hydrofoil craft, since the wedge
shaped section is otherwise very inefficient at low speeds.

Since the weight of a hydrofoil craft in operation is completely supported by the lift of the
foils, the size of the foils is governed by the weight of the craft. The weight of the craft is
proportional to the cube of its linear dimensions, while the lift of the foils is proportional to their
area or the square of their dimensions. Therefore, when the size of a hydrofoil craft the size of the
foils increases much faster. A higher lift may be obtained by increasing speed of the craft or the
lift coefficient of the foil, but cavitation imposes a limit on speed and lift coefficient. Foils of a
higher aspect ratio (span/chord) have a greater lift, but large foil spans cause mooring problems.

The hull form of a hydrofoil craft must be designed taking into consideration its operation
in the hull-borne and foil-borne modes, as well as the critical take-off phase or transition from the
hull-borne to the foil-borne mode. The hull should have a low resistance at hullborne speeds, and
is usually of a planing craft type. A narrow beam results in low hull-borne resistance, but stability
requirements impose a minimum limit on the beam. A low hull-borne resistance helps in allowing
the craft to become foilborne rapidly. The total resistance just before take-off is an important factor
in determining propulsion system requirements, since the resistance-speed curve has a prominent
hump at this speed, as shown in Fig. 11. The resistance at the foilborne operating speed may be
lower than that at the hump speed, through the effective power will be higher. A sufficient power
margin must be provided, perhaps as much as 20-25 per cent, to take-off in rough seas. The hull
form should also be designed to take into account performance in waves, particularly in the hull-
borne mode. This usually requires the hull to have deep V high deadrise sections forward. Wave
impacts can be quite severe particularly during the take-off phase.
 Fig. 11 Performance characteristics of a 30 m long hydrofoil craft.

Propulsion arrangements pose a major problem in hydrofoil craft, because of the two
different modes of operation hullborne and foilborne. In small hydrofoil craft, a single propulsion
system consisting of the prime mover, the transmission and the propulsor may be adequate. Large
craft usually have separate systems for the two modes of operation. Light weight, high speed diesel
engines are widely used in commercial hydrofoil craft, while gas turbines are used in military
vessels, particularly for foilborne propulsion. Screw propellers are normally used, but the
transmission of power from the engines inside the hull above water when foilborne to the
propellers under water is a major problem. Long angled shaft drives and geared drives involving
two sets of bevel gears (Z-drives) are used. With subcavitating propellers the speed is limited to
about 35-40 knots. For higher speeds, supercavitating propellers are necessary. Waterjet
propulsion provides a much simpler arrangement except that its efficiency may be less, and the
weight somewhat higher compared to a screw propeller.
 A major advantage that hydrofoil craft have over other types of high speed craft is the
ability to operate efficiently even in very rough seas. This is particularly significant in craft having
fully submerged foils with sophisticated automatic control systems. Such control systems usually
cover all types of situations which hydrofoil craft may encounter including take-off and landing,
foilborne operation keeping the hull at a constant height (platforming), roll and pitch stability
and banking in a turn. An area of crucial importance for the safe operation of the craft is the
avoidance of foil emergence out of water in steep waves.

The structural design of hydrofoil craft, like all high speed craft, is based on minimising
the weight of the structure while making it strong enough to withstand high accelerations and wave
impacts. Aircraft structural design techniques are often adopted. Weight is critical, while the
loading is higher than in conventional ships because of the much higher speeds. In a hydrofoil
craft, the impact that occurs during an emergency off-foil crash is usually critical. High fluctuating
stresses and high local loads also occur at the point of attachment of the struts to the foils and the
hull, and special attention must be given to the diffusion of concentrated loads at the points at
which the struts are connected to the hull. Fatigue and hydro-elasticity considerations are
important. Materials of high strength-weight ratio such as high grade weldable Aluminium alloys
are used for hull construction.

Hydrofoil craft with surface piercing foils are self-stabilising and automatic foil control
systems are not necessary. However, a surface piercing hydrofoil craft tends to follow the wave
surface (contouring). Therefore, trailing edge flaps and a simple control system are sometimes
fitted to improve ride comfort in such craft. Hydrofoil craft with fully submerged foils must have
a full automatic foil control system to control either trailing edge flaps or the incidence of the
whole foil. A full automatic control system gives very good seagoing performance with the craft
pursuing a horizontal path (platforming). Control is achieved through electro-hydraulic servo-
motors. There is a vertical gyro to measure pitch and roll, a rate gyro to measure yaw rate, three
or more vertical accelerometers, one on top of each foil strut, to measure accelerations in pitch,
heave and roll, and a sensor to measure the height of the bow above the surface of water. The
desired height of the hull above the surface of water and the desired direction of motion (compass
reading) is fed manually to the automatic control system, which provides continuous control during
foil-borne operation including banking during turns.

The major applications of hydrofoil craft have been for small, fast warships for anti-submarine
operations off the coast, and coast guard chase and apprehend missions. Commercial applications
of hydrofoil craft are mostly for high speed ferry services. Military hydrofoil craft usually have
fully submerged foils with automatic control systems. Commercial craft, on the other hand, are
usually fitted with surface piercing foils, which are self-stabilising and do not require a
sophisticated control system