Proposals to Improve Load and Cavitation Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis With Moving Reference Frame of a Conventional Propeller

Abstract

A very interesting topic in naval architecture is propeller's choice. The engineering team must pay attention to several characteristics of the vessel to properly choose the most effective propeller for that specific application. At the beginning of the Second World War, the diagrams of a well-known propeller, the B-Series propeller, were published. They were tested at the Netherlands Ship Model Basin in Wageningen, and this led to the development of multiple polynomial regression analysis to predict propeller characteristics. Until today this propeller is studied because it possesses satisfactory efficiency and adequate cavitation properties. In addition, its open-water characteristics (KT, KQ, and η0) are easy to obtain. The main goal is to evaluate the usefulness of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to gather the open-water characteristics, from the design of the propeller on prototype scale, considering cavitation to data analysis and verification and validation of the characteristic curves. A Microsoft Excel tool was developed to draw any B-Series propeller. For this work, the B3.80 was used. CFD results were verified using Richardson Extrapolation and then validated. To this end, the open-water characteristics were used and the numerical results showed a fairly good agreement with the experimental data. The cavitation results were in agreement with the Burrill diagram in most of the cases. The characteristic curves of the cases where cavitation occurred were similar to those shown in the Principles of Naval Architecture (PNA) (Lewis, E. V., 1988, Principles of Naval Architecture, The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers). Other interesting results of this propeller are also shown, e.g., pressure distribution, streamlines.