Propeller Cavitation Study Using an Unstructured Grid Based Navier-Stoker Solver

Abstract

The cavitating flow around a marine propeller is studied using an unstructured grid based Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes computational fluid dynamics method. A cavitation model based on a single-fluid multi-phase flow method is implemented in the Navier-Stokes solver. The proposed computational approach for cavitation is validated against a benchmark database for a cavitating hydrofoil as well as measured data for a cavitating marine propeller. The leading edge and mid-chord cavitation on the hydrofoil is reproduced well and shows good comparison with the well-known experimental data. The predicted noncavitating open water performance of the marine propeller geometry agrees well with the measured one. Finally, the cavitating propeller performance as well as cavitation inception and cavity shape are in good agreement with experimental measurements and observation. The overall results suggest that the present approach is practicable for actual cavitating propeller design procedures without lengthy preprocessing and significant preliminary knowledge of the flow field.