Effect of Time Step Size and Turbulence Model on the Open Water Hydrodynamic Performance Prediction of Contra-Rotating Propellers

A growing interest has been devoted to the contra-rotating propellers （CRPs） due to their high propulsive efficiency, torque balance, low fuel consumption, low cavitations, low noise performance and low hull vibration. Compared with the single-screw system, it is more difficult for the open water performance prediction because forward and aft propellers interact with each other and generate a more complicated flow field around the CRPs system. The current work focuses on the open water performance prediction of contra-rotating propellers by RANS and sliding mesh method considering the effect of computational time step size and turbulence model. The validation study has been performed on two sets of contra-rotating propellers developed by David W Taylor Naval Ship R ＆ D center. Compared with the experimental data, it shows that RANS with sliding mesh method and SST k-ω turbulence model has a good precision in the open water performance prediction of contra-rotating propellers, and small time step size can improve the level of accuracy for CRPs with the same blade number of forward and aft propellers, while a relatively large time step size is a better choice for CRPs with different blade numbers.

Applying Periodic Boundary Conditions to Predict Open Water Propeller Performance

Mathematical models of propellers were created that investigate the influence of periodic boundary conditions on predictions of a propeller's performance.Thrust and torque coefficients corresponding to different advance coefficients of DTMB 4119, 4382, and 4384 propellers were calculated.The pressure coefficient distribution of the DTMB 4119 propeller at different sections was also physically tested.Comparisons indicated good agreement between the results of experiments and the simulation.It showed that the periodic boundary condition can be used to rationally predict the open water performance of a propeller.By analyzing the three established modes for the computation, it was shown that using the spline curve method to divide the grids can meet the calculation's demands for precision better than using the rake cutting method.

Kappel型叶梢纵斜螺旋桨的尺度效应研究

In this paper,the scale effect of Kappel tip-rake propellers with different end plate designs was studied using computational fluid dynamics.Given the base size of the mesh and the appropriate numerical model for the determined simulation,the open-water performance of three Kappel propellers with different bending degrees of the end plate at different scales was calculated.Comparing the scale effect of these propellers,the scale effect of the torque coefficient of a Kappel propeller is more intense than that of the conventional propeller.In addition,the scale effect of the torque coefficient is strong when the bending degree of the end plate increases,dwarfing the scale effect on the thrust coefficient.Following the research on the scale effect of the wake field for the Kappel propeller,the laws that reveal the influence of the scale on the wake field were summarized;that is,the high-speed zone in the wake relatively expands with the increase of the scale in company with a trend of tip cross flow.The research reveals the basic variation trend and rule of the open-water performance and wake distribution for the Kappel propeller under different scales within the Reynolds number range of 4.665×10^(5)-8.666×10^(7)consideringγtransition,as well as the characteristic differences between the Kappel propellers with different end plate designs,which will be of great significance to its optimization design and application to marine vehicles of different scales.

Numerical Analysis of Blade Stress of Marine Propellers

In this study,a series of numerical calculations are carried out in ANSYS Workbench based on the unidirectional fluid–solid coupling theory.Using the DTMB 4119 propeller as the research object,a numerical simulation is set up to analyze the open water performance of the propeller,and the equivalent stress distribution of the propeller acting in the flow field and the axial strain of the blade are analyzed.The results show that FLUENT calculations can provide accurate and reliable calculations of the hydrodynamic load for the propeller structure.The maximum equivalent stress was observed in the blade near the hub,and the tip position of the blade had the largest stress.With the increase in speed,the stress and deformation showed a decreasing trend.

Numerical Simulation of the Flow around Marine Propeller Series

The objective of marine propeller design optimization study is to obtain a propeller with minimum power absorption, maximum efficiency and good materials resistance. In this study, results of numerical simulation carried out on the flow around a conventional marine propeller are presented. The investigation focused on the aspects related to the influence of skew magnitude, thickness and blade number on the propeller performances. First, open water performances of a conventional propeller model DTMB 4148 was estimated using RANS （Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes） method. The flow around rotating propeller model was analyzed in the steady state using RANS approach of the commercial CFD （computational fluid dynamics） code fluent. The results provide good agreement with literature data. Numerical results show that the number of blades has an influence on the open water performances of marine propellers. It＇s noticed that the best propeller has four or five blades from only the hydrodynamic aspect. The thickness blade effect has been studied for the same propeller model and compared to the blade with three different thickness values. Results of the calculation show that the blade thickness increases moderately the propeller efficiency. Finally, numerical simulation is performed to study the magnitude skew effect on the propeller blade performance, so three different models were generated. The results of the simulation show that the skew distribution has a positive effect on the open water performances of the marine propellers.

NUMERICAL RESEARCHES ON INTERACTION BETWEEN PROPELLERS IN UNIFORM FLOW

Numerical simulations of the flow around two bidirectional staggered propellers are conducted in uniform flow. The computed open water performance of the fore-propeller is compared with the corresponding experimental results, and the influence of the fore-propeller on the aft one is carefully investigated. It is found that the inflow around the aft propeller close to the side of the fore is especially affected by the fore one, leading to abnormal circumferential distribution of force on the blade in the shade region. For either forces or velocity distributions, the abnormal changes behave contrarily for cases with the rotating speed larger or smaller than the idle. Moreover, the more the rotating speed of the fore differs from the idle, the larger the abnormal values become.