Numerical study on hydraulic performance of submerged propellers in oxidation ditch

The submerged propeller is an efficient diving mix device,which is applicable for oxidation ditch treatment in industry,city and village wastewater-treatment plant. The impeller structure and reasonable rotating speed are important factors that determine flow field distribution and energy conversion efficiency. So it is necessary to use modern design methods to develop new kinds of high efficiency submerged propellers,and research the flow field characteristics of submerged propellers. On the basis of the existing form drawing,three-dimensional model of submerged propellers and unstructured tetrahedral mesh were generated. Based on Navier- Stokes equations and standard k- ε turbulence model,the flow was simulated by using a simple algorithm. Through changing some design parameters of propellers,the corresponding numerical simulation results reveal that for the same impeller diameter and service area of submerged propellers,the power consumption could be reduced effectively by optimizing blade mounting angle,which can determine the best blade mounting angle and most suitable rotational speed under given conditions. The study can provide theoretical and project guidance for submerged propellers design.

A Semi-Automatic Thickness Inspection Technique for Marine Propellers

This paper describes the design and development of a Semi-Automatic Precision Caliper System to measure the thickness of an outboard marine engine propeller blade.Several commonly used methods for measuring the thickness of a propeller blade are reviewed in this paper.These include the P rops Scan,3D Vision System and Black Dog.However,the operating practices and availability of different facilities in industry necessitate a more cost-effect ive approach.An alternative method using a Semi-Automatic Precision Caliper S ystem is therefore proposed.Details of the design criteria,principles of oper ation as well as the testing and verification of the system are presented.The paper concludes that the Semi-Automatic Precision Caliper System is a low cost and effective method for measuring the thickness of a propeller.

Counter-Rotating Type Horizontal-Axis Bidirectional Propellers for Tidal Stream Power Unit

Tidal stream power units with horizontal-axis propellers are one of promising technologies for generating the renewable green energy. The ebb and flow require that the power unit must operate in bidirectional tidal streams. Hence a tidal stream power unit with counter-rotating type horizontal-axis bidirectional propellers is proposed in this paper. The blades with fully-symmetrical hydrofoils were optimized numerically. The output and flow conditions predicted by the computational fluid dynamics simulations are compared with the results of the wind tunnel experiments at the higher tip speed ratios, which are of expected usual operating conditions of this unit. The numerical and experimental results show good agreements. It is also confirmed that the flow discharged from the counter-rotating type propellers has no swirling component, though the single propeller generates the unacceptable swirling component.

A Numerical Prediction of Tip Vortices from Tandem Propellers in the Counter-Rotating Type Tidal Stream Power Unit

Ocean energy has a potential of providing a large amount of renewable energy around the world. One of the forms of ocean energy, tidal stream power is widely recognized as the continuous, predictable and eco-friendly ocean energy source. Unique tandem propellers that can counter-rotate have been designed to generate electric power effectively from a tidal stream. This type of power unit has several advantages compare to the conventional unit with a single propeller. At the design of the tidal stream power unit, it is important to investigate the structure of the tip vortex tubes shedding to predict the load of the propeller. In this research, we investigated the tip vortex shedding using the CFD method for the conventional single propeller and counter-rotating type tandem propellers and estimated the performance efficiency using RANS (Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes) model and we confirmed the limitation of RANS model on the calculation of the tip vortex stretching.

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.

Using the surface panel method to predict the steady performance of ducted propellers

A new numerical method was developed for predicting the steady hydrodynamic performance of ducted propellers. A potential based surface panel method was applied both to the duct and the propeller, and the interaction between them was solved by an induced velocity potential iterative method. Compared with the induced velocity iterative method, the method presented can save programming and calculating time. Numerical results for a JD simplified ducted propeller series showed that the method presented is effective for predicting the steady hydrodynamic performance of ducted propellers.

Numerical computation and analysis of unsteady viscous flow around autonomous underwater vehicle with propellers based on sliding mesh

The flexible transmission shaft and wheel propeller are combined as the kinetic source equipment, which realizes the nmlti-motion modes of the autonomous underwater vehicle （AUV） such as vectored thruster and wheeled movement. In order to study the interactional principle between the hull and the wheel propellers while the AUV navigating in water, the computational fluid dynamics （CFD） method is used to simulate numerically the unsteady viscous flow around AUV with propellers by using the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes （RANS） equations, shear-stress transport （SST） k-w model and pressure with splitting of operators （PISO） algorithm based on sliding mesh. The hydrodynamic parameters of AUV with propellers such as resistance, pressure and velocity are got, which reflect well the real ambient flow field of AUV with propellers. Then, the semi-implicit method for pressure-linked equations （SIMPLE） algorithm is used to compute the steady viscous flow field of AUV hull and propellers, respectively. The computational results agree well with the experimental data, which shows that the numerical method has good accuracy in the prediction of hydrodynamic performance. The interaction between AUV hull and wheel propellers is predicted qualitatively and quantitatively by comparing the hydrodynamic parameters such as resistance, pressure and velocity with those from integral computation and partial computation of the viscous flow around AUV with propellers, which provides an effective reference to the shady on noise and vibration of AUV hull and propellers in real environment. It also provides technical support for the design of new AUVs.

Numerical Prediction of Tip Vortex Cavitation for Marine Propellers in Non-uniform Wake

Tip vortex cavitation is the first type of cavita- tion to take place around most marine propellers. But the numerical prediction of tip vortex cavitation is one of the challenges for propeller wake because of turbulence dis- sipation during the numerical simulation. Several parame- ters of computational mesh and numerical algorithm are tested by mean of the predicted length of tip vortex cav- tiation to validate a developed method. The predicted length of tip vortex cavtiation is on the increase about 0.4 propeller diameters using the developed numerical method. The predicted length of tip vortex cavtiation by RNG k - e model is about 3 times of that by SST k - ~o model. Therefore, based on the validation of the present approach, the cavitating flows generated by two rotating propellers under a non-uniform inflow are calculated further. The distributions of axial velocity, total pressure and vapor volume fraction in the transversal planes across tip vortex region are shown to be useful in analyzing the feature of the cavitating flow. The strongest kemel of tip vortex cavitation is not at the position most close to blade tip but slightly far away from the region. During the growth of tip vortex cavitation extension, it appears short and thick, and then it becomes long and thin. The pressure fluctuations at the positions inside tip vortex region also validates the conclusion. A key finding of the study is that the grids constructed especially for tip vortex flows by usingseparated computational domain is capable of decreasing the turbulence dissipation and correctly capturing the fea- ture of propeller tip vortex cavitation under uniform and non-uniform inflows. The turbulence model and advanced grids is important to predict tip vortex cavitation.

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.

Investigating the Performance of Twin Marine Propellers in Different Ship Wake Fields Using an Unsteady Viscous and Inviscid Solver

In this study,the performance of a twin-screw propeller under the influence of the wake field of a fully appended ship was investigated using a coupled Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes(RANS)/boundary element method(BEM)code.The unsteady BEM is an efficient approach to predicting propeller performance.By applying the time-stepping method in the BEM solver,the trailing vortex sheet pattern of the propeller can be accurately captured at each time step.This is the main innovation of the coupled strategy.Furthermore,to ascertain the effect of the wake field of the ship with acceptable accuracy,a RANS solver was developed.A finite volume method was used to discretize the Navier–Stokes equations on fully unstructured grids.To simulate ship motions,the volume of the fluid method was applied to the RANS solver.The validation of each solver(BEM/RANS)was separately performed,and the results were compared with experimental data.Ultimately,the BEM and RANS solvers were coupled to estimate the performance of a twin-screw propeller,which was affected by the wake field of the fully appended hull.The proposed model was applied to a twin-screw oceanography research vessel.The results demonstrated that the presented model can estimate the thrust coefficient of a propeller with good accuracy as compared to an experimental self-propulsion test.The wake sheet pattern of the propeller in open water(uniform flow)was also compared with the propeller in a real wake field.

Hydrodynamic characteristics of the surface-piercing propellers for the planing craft

Demand for high-speed marine vehicles (HSMVs) is high among both commercial and naval users. It is the duty of the marine vessel's designer to provide a hull and propulsion system that diminishes drag, improves propulsive efficiency, increases safety and improves maneuverability. From the propulsor side, surface piercing propellers (SPPs) should improve performance. Unlike immersed propellers, behavior of the SPP is affected by depth of immersion, Weber number and shaft inclination angle. This paper uses a practical numerical method to predict the hydrodynamic characteristics of an SPP. The critical advance velocity ratio is derived using the Weber number and pitch ratio in the transition mode, then the potential based boundary element method (BEM) is used on the engaged surfaces. Two models of three and six-bladed SPPs (SPP-1 and SPP-2) were selected and some results are shown.

Prediction of Hydrodynamic Performance of Marine Propellers by Surface Panel Method

The potential based low order surface panel method is used to predict the hydrodynamic performance of marine propellers. In present method the hyperboloidal quadrilateral panels are employed to avoid the gap between the panels. The influence coefficients of panels are calculated by Morino’s analytical formulations for increasing numerically calculating speed. The pressure Kutta condition is satisfied on the trailing edge of propeller blade by Newton-Raphson iterative procedure. Therefore the pressure coefficients of the suction and pressure faces of blade are equal on trailing edge. The method developed by Yanagizawa is used to determine the velocities on propeller surface, and to avoid the singularity in the numerical differentiation. The predicted pressure distributions and open water performances of general propellers and highly skewed propellers have a good agreement with experimental dat and other calculation results.

Flight Transient Estimation of VTOL Aircraft with Propellers

Methodological issues associated with the determination of the vertical take-off and landing aerodynamic parameters equipped with two rotary propellers during take-off and hovering, descent and landing are studied in the proposed article. During the computer simulation process, kinematics parameters diagrams were made, aerodynamic coefficients and propellers thrust components at all stages of aircraft take-off were estimated. That numerical data can be used in a preliminary stage of aerodynamic design for the vertical take-off and landing aircraft and electric drones at the determination of control and equalization elements geometric and kinematic parameters.

A review of recent advances in the effects of surface and interface properties on marine propellers

Marine propellers are important propulsion devices for both surface ships and underwater vehicles.Increasingly severe environmental problems have required further performance enhancement for propellers.Nowadays,traditional methods to improve propeller performances through geometrical and structural optimizations have been extensively investigated,while the underlying mechanisms of the effects of surface and interface properties on marine propellers are still far from being fully understood.This paper presented a comprehensive review of recent advances in the effects of surface and interface properties,such as surface roughness and surface wettability,on marine propellers with an emphasis on the significant improvements in both hydrodynamic and cavitation performances,hoping to arouse more in-depth investigations in the field of surface/interface science and technologies on marine propellers,and also promote the state-of-the-art technologies,such as superlubricity technology,into practical applications.

The regulation of ferrocene-based catalysts on heat transfer in highpressure combustion of ammonium perchlorate/hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene/aluminum composite propellants

The regulation of the burning rate pressure exponent for the ammonium perchlorate/hydroxylterminated polybutadiene/aluminum(AP/HTPB/Al)composite propellants under high pressures is a crucial step for its application in high-pressure solid rocket motors.In this work,the combustion characteristics of AP/HTPB/Al composite propellants containing ferrocene-based catalysts were investigated,including the burning rate,thermal behavior,the local heat transfer,and temperature profile in the range of 7-28 MPa.The results showed that the exponent breaks were still observed in the propellants after the addition of positive catalysts(Ce-Fc-MOF),the burning rate inhibitor((Ferrocenylmethyl)trimethylammonium bromide,Fc Br)and the mixture of Fc Br/catocene(GFP).However,the characteristic pressure has increased,and the exponent decreased from 1.14 to 0.66,0.55,and 0.48 when the addition of Ce-FcMOF,Fc Br and Fc Br/GFP in the propellants.In addition,the temperature in the first decomposition stage was increased by 7.50℃ and 11.40℃ for the AP/Fc Br mixture and the AP/Fc Br/GFP mixture,respectively,compared to the pure AP.On the other hand,the temperature in the second decomposition stage decreased by 48.30℃ and 81.70℃ for AP/Fc Br and AP/Fc Br/GFP mixtures,respectively.It was also found that Fc Br might generate ammonia to cover the AP surface.In this case,a reaction between the methyl in Fc Br and perchloric acid caused more ammonia to appear at the AP surface,resulting in the suppression of ammonia desorption.In addition,the coarse AP particles on the quenched surface were of a concave shape relative to the binder matrix under low and high pressures when the catalysts were added.In the process,the decline at the AP/HTPB interface was only exhibited in the propellant with the addition of Ce-Fc-MOF.The ratio of the gas-phase temperature gradient of the propellants containing catalysts was reduced significantly below and above the characteristic pressure,rather than 3.6 times of the difference in the blank propellant.Overall,the obtained results demonstrated that the pressure exponent could be effectively regulated and controlled by adjusting the propellant local heat and mass transfer under high and low pressures.

Investigation of hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene propellant breaking characteristics and mechanism impacted by submerged cavitation water jet

A submerged cavitation water jet(SCWJ)is an effective method to recycle solid propellant from obsolete solid engines by the breaking method.Solid propellant's breaking modes and mechanical process under SCWJ impact are unclear.This study aims to understand those impact breaking mechanisms.The hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene(HTPB)propellant was chosen as the research material,and a self-designed test system was used to conduct impact tests at four different working pressures.The high-speed camera characterized crack propagation,and the DIC method calculated strain change during the impact process.Besides,micro and macro fracture morphologies were characterized by scanning electron microscope(SEM)and computed tomography(CT)scanning.The results reveal that the compressive strain concentration region locates right below the nozzle,and the shear strain region distributes symmetrically with the jet axis,which increases to 4% at first 16th ms,the compressive strain rises to 2% and 6% in the axial and transverse direction,respectively.The two tensile cracks formed first at the compression strain concentrate region,and there generate many shear cracks around the tensile cracks,and those shear cracks that develop and aggregate cause the cracks to become wider and cut through the tensile cracks,forming the tensile-shear cracks and the impact parts eventually fail.The HTPB propellant forms a breaking hole shaped conical after impact 10 s.The mass loss increases by 17 times at maximum,with the working pressure increasing by three times.Meanwhile,the damage value of the breaking hole remaining on the surface increases by 7.8 times while 2.9 times in the depth of the breaking hole.The breaking efficiency is closely affected by working pressures.The failure modes of HTPB impacted by SCWJ are classified as tensile crack-dominated and tensile-shear crack-dominated damage mechanisms.

Counter-Rotating Type Tidal Stream Power Unit Boarded on Pillar(Performances and Flow Conditions of Tandem Propellers)

The authors have invented the unique counter-rotating type tidal stream power unit composed of the tandem pro- peUers and the double rotational armature type peculiar generator without the traditional stator. The front and the rear propellers counter-drive the inner and the outer armatures of the peculiar generator, respectively. The unit has the fixftful advantages that not only the output is sufficiently higher without supplementary equipment such as a gearbox, but also the rotational moment hardly act on the pillar because the rotational torque of both propel- lers/armatures are counter-balanced in the unit. This paper discusses experimentally the performances of the power unit and the effects of the propeller rotation on the sea surface. The axial force acting on the pillar in- creases naturally with the increase of not only the stream velocity but also the drag of the tandem propellers. Be- sides, the force vertical to the stream also acts on the pillar, which is induced from the Karman vortex street and the dominant frequencies appear owing to the front and the rear propeller rotations. The propeller rotating in close to the sea surface brings the abnormal wave and the amplitude increases as the stream velocity is faster and/or the drag is stronger.

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.

Effect of neutral polymeric bonding agent on tensile mechanical properties and damage evolution of NEPE propellant

Introducing Neutral Polymeric bonding agents(NPBA) into the Nitrate Ester Plasticized Polyether(NEPE)propellant could improve the adhesion between filler/matrix interface, thereby contributing to the development of new generations of the NEPE propellant with better mechanical properties. Therefore,understanding the effects of NPBA on the deformation and damage evolution of the NEPE propellant is fundamental to material design and applications. This paper studies the uniaxial tensile and stress relaxation responses of the NEPE propellant with different amounts of NPBA. The damage evolution in terms of interface debonding is further investigated using a cohesive-zone model(CZM). Experimental results show that the initial modulus and strength of the NEPE propellant increase with the increasing amount of NPBA while the elongation decreases. Meanwhile, the relaxation rate slows down and a higher long-term equilibrium modulus is reached. Experimental and numerical analyses indicate that interface debonding and crack propagation along filler-matrix interface are the dominant damage mechanism for the samples with a low amount of NPBA, while damage localization and crack advancement through the matrix are predominant for the ones with a high amount of NPBA. Finally, crosslinking density tests and simulation results also show that the effect of the bonding agent is interfacial rather than due to the overall crosslinking density change of the binder.

Coupling of RANS and BEM Solvers for Simulation of Propeller Behind the Hull in Full Appended Model

To design a propeller for ship power plant,the interaction between ship hull and propeller must be taken into account.The main concern is to apply the wake effect of ship stern on the propeller performance.In this paper,a coupled BEM(Boundary Element Method)/RANS(Renolds-Averaged Navier−Stokes)solver is used to simulate propeller behind the hull in the self-propulsion test.The motivation of this work is to develop a practical tool to design marine propulsion system without suffering long computational time.An unsteady boundary element method which is also known as panel method is chosen to estimate the propeller forces.Propeller wakes are treated using a time marching wake alignment method.Also,a RANS code coupled with VoF equation is developed to consider the ship motions and wake field effects in the problem.A coupling algorithm is developed to interchange ship wake field to the potential flow solver and propeller thrust to the RANS code.Based on the difference between hull resistance and the propeller thrust,a PI controller is developed to compute the propeller RPM in every time step.Verification of the solver is carried out using the towing tank test report of a 50 m oceanography research vessel.Wake factor and trust deduction coefficient are estimated numerically.Also,the wake rollup pattern of the propeller in open water is compared with the propeller in real wake field.