Hydrodynamic Analysis of Podded Propellers

Abstract

This paper presents computational techniques which couple a lifting surface method (MPUF-3A) for the unsteady cavitating flow analysis of propellers with an Euler solver (GBFLOW) and a Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes Solver (FLUENT) to predict the flow and the performance of various types of podded propellers such as pull, push and twin types. The time-averaged propeller force distributions are considered as source terms in the momentum equations of GBFLOW or FLUENT. The effect of viscosity on the effective wake and on the performance of each propeller, as well as on the forces on the pod and strut are assessed, and the results of the involved methods are validated with those measured in experiments.