An integral calculation approach for numerical simulation of cavitating flow around a marine propeller behind the ship hull

Abstract

In this paper, the unsteady cavitating turbulent flow around a marine propeller is simulated based on the unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) with emphasis on the hull-propeller interaction by an integral calculation approach, which means the propeller and hull are treated as a whole when the cavitating flow is calculated. The whole calculational domain is split to an inner rotating domain containing a propeller and an outer domain containing a hull. And the two split sections are connected together in ANSYS CFX by using the GGI interfaces and the transient rotor stator frame change/mixing model. The alternate rotation model is employed for the advection term in the momentum equations in order to reduce the numerical error. Comparison of predictions with measurements shows that the propeller thrust coefficient can be predicted satisfactorily. The unsteady cavitating flow around the propeller behind the ship hull wake shows quasi-periodic features including cavity inception, growth and shrinking. These features are effectively reproduced in the simulations which compare well to available experimental data. In addition, significant pressure fluctuations on the ship hull surface induced by the unsteady propeller cavitation are compared with experimental data at monitoring points on the hull surface. The predicted amplitudes of the first components corresponding to the first blade passing frequencies match well with the experimental data. The maximum error between the predictions and the experimental data for the pressure pulsations is around 8%, which is acceptable in most engineering applications.