Research on the effect of shallow draft on the performance of azimuth thruster under bollard conditions

Abstract

For the azimuth thruster installed on shallow draft ships, the shallow water effect leads to a decrease in propulsive performance, especially under the bollard condition. In order to accurately predict the bollard propulsion performance of the azimuth thruster under shallow draft conditions, this paper firstly obtains the bollard thrust performance in several waters through the shallow water test, and then analyzes the effect of hull wake and cavitation on the bollard thrust performance of the azimuth thruster by using the CFD method. The results are consistent with the test results under the open water. When the water depth is less than 1.0D, the thrust coefficient increases with the increase of water depth, when the water depth is greater than 1.0D, the thrust coefficient basically does not change; Considering the influence of hull wake, the axial inlet velocity of the azimuth thruster is 7.27% higher than that of the open water condition; meanwhile considering the influence of the hull wake and cavitation, the leading edge of the bottom of the azimuth thruster conduit and the back of the paddle blade are susceptible to cavitation, which leads to average decrease of the thrust coefficient and torque coefficient by 7.03% and 6.12%, respectively.