A Hybrid Viscous/Potential Flow Method for the Prediction of the Wetted and Cavitating Performance of Ducted Propellers

Abstract

This paper presents the analysis of the performance for various ducted propellers using a hybrid numerical method, which couples a vortex lattice method (VLM) for the analysis of propellers and a Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes solver for the prediction of the viscous fluid flow around the duct. The effects of viscosity on the effective wake and on the performance of the propeller blade, as well as on the predicted duct forces, are assessed. The prediction of the performance for those ducted propellers from the present method is validated against existing experimental data.