BladeX: Python Blade Morphing

Abstract

Marine propeller blade shape is constantly studied by engineers to obtain designs that allow for enhanced hydrodynamic performance while reducing vibrations and noise emis-sions. In such framework, shape parametrization and morphing algorithms are crucial elements of the numerical simulation and prototyping environment required for the eval-uation of new blade geometries. From a practical standpoint, a propeller blade is uniquely described by the following parameters: the shape of a certain number of sectional profiles, complemented by the pitch, skew, rake, and chord length values corresponding to each section along the radial direction. Taking such parameters into account we are able to con-struct a blade and, parametrizing the aforementioned quantities by spline reconstruction, we are able to morph every single section. This results in a morphing tool that expands in a non-intrusive way the naval engineering consolidated design techniques. In particular, we followed Carlton (2012) for marine propeller blades construction, conventions, and terminology.