Design and Flow Analysis of Marine Propeller using Computational Fluid Dynamics

International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume VI, Issue III, March 2019 | ISSN 2321–2705

Design and Flow Analysis of Marine Propeller using Computational Fluid Dynamics

S. Baskaran¹, L. Dhineshraj², J. Dinesh², B. Dineshkumar², T. Dineshkumar²

¹Assistant Professor, Mechanical Department, KSR Institute for Engineering and Technology, Namakkal, Tamil Nadu, India
²Final Year Mechanical Students, KSR Institute for Engineering and Technology, Namakkal, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract—This paper investigates the modelling and hydro dynamics analysis of sub merged marine propellers. The model analysis is based on the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) using fluent software. The method of meshing and the effect of mesh size are studied in this paper. Moreover, different propeller models and methods are explained; and the best settings for obtaining the accurate results are presented. The performance curves of the propeller obtained by CFD are compared and verified with the analytical results. The pressure and velocity contours around the propeller also presented.

Keywords—Propeller,Blade, Angle, Material, Velocity, Pressure

I. INTRODUCTION

A marine propeller is normally fitted to the stem of the ship where it operates in water that has been disturbed by the ship as it moves ahead. A propeller that revolves in the clockwise direction (viewed from front) when propelling the ship forward is called a right-hand propeller. When a propeller is moved rapidly in the water then the pressure in the liquid adjacent to body drops in proportion to the square of local flow velocity. If the local pressure drops below the vapour pressure of surrounding liquid, small pockets or cavities of vapour are formed. Then the flow slows down behind the object and these little cavities are collapsed with very high explosive force. If the cavitation area is sufficiently large, it will change the propeller characteristics such as decrease in thrust, alteration of torque, damage of propeller material (corrosion and erosion) and strong vibration excitation and noise.
During recent year’s great advancement of computer performance, Computational Fluid-Dynamics (CFD) methods for solving the Reynolds Averaged Navies-Stokes (RANS) equation have been increasingly applied to various marine propeller geometries. While these studies have shown great advancement in the technology, some issues still need to be addressed for more practicable procedures. These include mesh generation strategies and turbulence model selection. With the availability of superior hardware, it becomes possible to model the complex fluid flow problems like propeller flow. A ship can be fitted with one, two and rarely three propellers depending upon the speed and maneuvering requirements of the vessel.

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