Wageningen-B Marine Propeller Performance Characterization Through CFD

Abstract

This study presents the prediction of Wageningen B-Series three blade marine propeller hydrodynamics performance characteristics through Computational Fluid Dynamic application (SolidWorks Flow Simulation). Five propellers with pitch to diameter ratio (P/D) values (0.6, 0.8, 1.0, 1.2 and 1.4) variances were subjected to the computational flow analysis based on Reynolds Averages Navier-Strokes Equation-RANSE solver. The propeller performance characteristic such as thrust (KT), torque (KQ) and efficiency were computed under different types of advance ratio (J) values. Propeller with high P/D pitch-to diameter value is found more efficient where 1.4 P/D achieves about 60.38% (KQ) and 39.17% (KT) as compared to 0.6 P/D achieving 20.72% (KQ) and 19.11% (KT). The computation had shown that the geometry parameters such P/D has a significant influence on the propeller performance characteristics and the SolidWorks Flow Simulation had successfully utilized for this computational application.