Numerical Analysis on Cavitation-noise and Fluid-structure Interaction of AU-Outline GAWN Series and B-Series Marine Propellers

Abstract

Cavitation and cavitation-induced noise are harmful to both marine propellers and marine wildlife. Thus, it is required to reduce cavitation in marine propellers by developing the best design marine propellers. Moreover, proper material should be selected during the construction of marine propellers to withstand high-pressure loads. This paper presents an evaluation of the hydrodynamic characteristics such as cavitation and cavitation-induced noise of AU-outline GAWN series and B-series marine propellers at 0˚, 5˚, 10˚, and 15˚ rake angles using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis. Moreover, the study aims to find out the optimized propeller material among Nickel-Aluminum-Bronze (NAB), S2 glass, Aluminum 6061, and carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) materials. It is concluded that the lowest cavitation noises are 153.3 dB and 153.1 dB at a 10° rake angle for AU-outline GAWN series and B-Series marine propellers respectively. S2 glass is observed to be the optimum material at low rake angles, while CFRP is the optimum material at high rake angles compared to all other potential materials for both AU-outline GAWN series and B-series propellers.