Numerical simulations of propeller cavitation flows based on OpenFOAM

Abstract

In order to study the cavitation and hydrodynamic characteristics of propeller under uniform and non-uniform flows, numerical investigations are performed using interPhaseChangeDyMFoam in the open source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software platform OpenFOAM with Schnerr-Sauer cavitation model. The simulation results can be used as a reference to evaluate the working ability of a propeller in case of actual navigation. A new grid encryption method is adopted in the research to better capture the existence of vortex cavitation at the propeller tip. The method of function input is carried out in the study to simulate the condition of non-uniform flow and reduce the calculation amount. Typical unsteady dynamics are predicted by the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) method with a modified shear stress transport (SST) k − ω turbulence model. The numerical results of the propeller such as cavitation shape and pressure distribution under uniform and non-uniform flow are analyzed and compared with each other.