STRUCTURAL AND FLUID DESIGN EXPLORATION TO ENHANCE THE PERFORMANCE OF A FINN MAST FOR THE OLYMPICS GAMES

Abstract

. FINN is a dinghy boat used for the Olympics Games. Unlike most of the series involved in Olympics, which are one-design boats, the FINN offers class rules system which allow to propose design enhancements to target specific requirements from sailors. Structural design has been performed using the 3D EXPERIENCE Platform by Dassault-Syst`emes. Trade-off between structural design (composites) and fluid performance (external shape) have been performed over 10000 virtual models and imagine seven different masts to be manufactured by Heol Composites. Each manufactured mast was used for training and competition by the sailors of French National Federation in various conditions, in different sailing areas (France, Italy, Greece, Spain, ...). Advanced tests have been performed on one particular mast to mesure the strains and mast deformation from optical fibre measurements in collaboration with Pixel-Sur-Mer. Those experiments were then used to develop and validate accurate simulation with the mast, boom and sail all modeled in a single Fluid-structural simulation. All this engineering work has been performed from 2018 to 2021. This project leaded to enhancement the performance of sailors in various conditions and helped them to get a better