Open Source technology has become mature enough as to be become highly attractive for industrial applications, and this is due to its reliability, flexibility, scalability and low cost. Today, a large amount of Open source software have been developed, from CAD modeling, to multi-physics solvers, to optimization applications, to visualization and plotting utilities.  From an engineering and practical point of view, it is important to understand the real applicability of these tools in performing and completing complex engineering tasks.

In this work, the  three-dimensional model to be studied, the domain discretization, the solution of the governing equations, and the data analytics have been performed entirely by using a simulation and numerical optimization framework based on Open Source technology.  As a test problem, we  studied a racing sailing yacht appendage, i.e., Mini Transat 6.5 daggerboard.

As parametric geometry modeler, the Open Vehicle Sketch Pad was employed, and for mesh generation we used the freely available CfMesh tool. The CFD simulations were carried out using OpenFOAM solver, while the numerical experiment and the subsequent Surrogate based Optimization was done by means of DAKOTA optimizer.  For data post-processing and plotting we used Octave and Python.

For the parametric and optimization study we chose a total of 12 design variables, which controls the shape of the daggerboad.  The results of the parametric study were used to conduct a sensitivity analysis and to build the meta-models, and the optimization was done at both the surrogate and the design space level. The goals of the multi-objective optimization study were to maximize the vertical lift, minimize the drag, and ensure the right amount of side force is produced. The outcome is presented in terms of scatter matrix plots, response surfaces, and Pareto frontier.