Coupled Level-Set and Volume of Fluid (CLSVOF) Solver for Air Lubrication Method of a Flat Plate
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Article title: Coupled level-set and volume of fluid (CLSVOF) solver for air lubrication method of a flat plate
Authors: Huichan Kim and Sunho Park
The present article is focused on the numerical investigation of the effect of air lubrication used to reduce the frictional drag on a flat plate. The coupled level-set and volume of fluid (CLSVOF) solver was developed based on the open-source CFD libraries (OpenFOAM) to predict the air and water interface. Rayleigh-Taylor instability was simulated to verify the CLSVOF solver. Grid convergence study, and also comparisons with the experiment proved the promising accuracy of the solver.
Comments:
This is an interesting, well-planned, and executed numerical investigation on the effect of air lubrication used to reduce the frictional drag on a flat plate considering coupled level-set and volume of fluid methods. I recommend acceptance of the paper after implementing the following minor changes.
- Please add a reference to the Figure 1 caption, if these pictures have not been provided by the authors.
- Lines 177-178 - Please check the units of viscosity.
- Lines 180-182 - Please use the same notation for the time unit along with the text, usually “s”.
Author Response
The authors appreciate the reviewer’s favorable comments. The authors have tried to accommodate the reviewer’s suggestion and comments to improve the paper.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper presents a CLSVOF solver accounting for the influence of air fluid structure interactions over a flat plate. Such approach may be useful for air lubrication methods. The authors use openFOAM simulations.
In my opinion the motivation of this paper is sound and there is a case to publish. The authors present the steps of their modelling procedure and selected results. However for the paper to be accepted I would like to see the following :
- In the intro pls refer to similar applications in other areas of engineering and explain the practical application of the method you present for maritime engineering (e.g. air lubrication on passenger vessels) using practical study cases and papers from high quality journals
- In the methodology the figures have to be considerably improved and the authors are invited to add openFOAM scripts outlining the modelling procedure in an appendix.
- In the results you have to discuss on what basis the method could be validated and show some comparisons against other studies or experiments OR at least explain what are your next steps on this front
- You have to emphasize throughout the paper and the conclusions the impact of your publication
- All pictures have to be updated in terms of quality and fidelity and the mathematical background has to be strengthened by suitable referencing to the learnt literature
Author Response
The authors appreciate the reviewer’s favorable comments. The authors have tried to accommodate the reviewer’s suggestion and comments to improve the paper.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Authors
The paper can be accepted but the positioning of the figures in the manuscript (sizing and positioning is unacceptable). Please work with editors to take care of this matter.
