International Development of the Research on the Hydrodynamic Performance of Rowing

The aim of the paper is to review the international development of the research on the hydrodynamic performance of rowing. The resistance of the shell can be split into three components, skin drag, form drag and wave resistance. The review analyzes the usual method of calculating the three drags in research on hydrodynamic performance of the shell and in optimization of the shape of the shell. The force acted on the oar blade, which provides the propulsion for forward motion of the shell, can be considered two components, lift and drag, or normal force and tangential force. There are two approaches to investigate the hydrodynamic performance of the shell and the blade, laboratory experiment and numerical simulation. It can be seen that there is perfect projects of the numerical simulation in the future, especial CFD commercial software.