Superstructure Aerodynamics of the Type 26 Global Combat Ship

Abstract

The Type 26 City class Global Combat Ship is the latest design of UK frigate. Construction of the first ship, HMS Glasgow, began in July 2017 and the expectation is that it will enter service in the mid-2020s as a replacement for the Royal Navy’s Type 23 Duke class frigates. The main contractor for the design and construction of the ship is BAE Systems Maritime – Naval Ships. The Type 26 superstructure is characterised by its smooth sloping surfaces that are continuous along the ship from the fore deck to the flight deck. The tumblehome design reduces the ship’s radar cross-section, as does the minimisation of curved surfaces and internal corners. The Type 26 also has a bulky mast, also with flat sloping sides, while the funnel casing around the gas turbine exhaust uptake is located aft of the main mast and relatively low on the superstructure. In comparison, the earlier Type 23 has a much more fragmented superstructure with few geometric features for reduced radar reflection; it also has a more slender mast from which the anemometers are mounted, and the exhaust uptakes are higher. Overall the aerodynamics of the stealthy Type 26 frigate will be very different to the previous Type 23, and this will affect the operational envelope of the ship’s helicopters. Recognising the importance of superstructure aerodynamics to the ship design, the University of Liverpool has been working closely with colleagues from BAE to ensure that the air flow over the ship was considered as the superstructure design evolved. The paper will describe how, within the design cycle, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been used to analyse the unsteady flow over the full-scale ship. It will show how CFD, together with helicopter flight dynamics modelling, was used to inform design options for the superstructure geometry ahead of the landing deck. CFD was also used to inform options for locating the ship’s anemometers and has been used to predict the dispersion of the ship’s engine exhaust gases and the air temperature distribution in the vicinity of the flight deck.