Effect of geometric configurations on hydrodynamic performance assessment of a marine propeller

Abstract

The present paper deals with the effect of the geometric characteristics on the propeller hydrodynamic performances. Several propeller configurations are created by changing number of blades, expanded area and pitch ratios. The Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations are solved using the commercial code FLUENT 6.3.26. The standard ĸ -ε and the ĸ - ω SST models are used for the steady uniform and the transient non-uniform ship wake. Overlapping propellers arise from high expanded area involve that the computational domain should be created with several multi-blocks. Thrust, torque and efficiency coefficients of the generated propellers are compared with available experimental data. The computational results reveal that both standard ĸ - ε and ĸ - ω SST models guarantee acceptable level of accuracy in open water condition and unsteady flow predictions. This parametric study has also allowed achieving optimal shape factors ensuring best hydrodynamic performances.