Grid Influence on the Propeller Open-Water Performance and Flow Field

Abstract

A grid sensitivity study for a conventional propeller in open-water condition uses three grids and compares with experimental data. Thrust and torque are rather insensitive to the grid resolution, but local quantities such as pressure coefficient and velocity are grid sensitive. An uncertainty analysis method reveals that the data are not in the asymptotic range which might be partly due to the complexity of the propeller flow.