Unsteady numerical simulation of cavitating turbulent flow around a highly skewed model marine propeller

Abstract

The cavitating flows around a highly skewed model marine propeller in both uniform flow and wake flow have been simulated by applying a mass transfer cavitation model based on Rayleigh-Plesset equation and k-ω shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model. From comparison of numerical results with the experiment, it is seen that the thrust and torque coefficients of the propeller are predicted satisfactory. It is also clarified from unsteady simulation of cavitating flow around the propeller in wake flow that the whole process of cavitating-flow evolution can be reasonably reproduced including sheet cavitation and tip vortex cavitation observed in the experiments. Furthermore, to study the effect of pressure fluctuation on the surrounding, pressure fluctuations induced by the cavitation as well as the propeller rotation are predicted at three reference positions above the propeller for comparison with the experimental data: The amplitudes of the dominant components corresponding to the first, second, and third blade passing frequencies were satisfactorily predicted. It is noted that the maximum difference of pressure fluctuation between the calculation and experiment reached 20%, which might be acceptable by usual engineering applications. © 2011 American Society of Mechanical Engineers.