Tip clearance influence on hydrodynamic performance and pressure fluctuation of a composite ducted propeller using a two-way FSI method

Abstract

With the development of advanced materials, composite materials have been studied by researchers over the world to make them more applicable to many applications, especially in the marine industry. As an important component of marine vehicles, propellers have been studied over decades to achieve the goals of increasing hydrodynamic performances and structural properties. However, traditional marine propellers manufactured with metallic materials have many limits. Therefore, the use of composite material to improve the performances of the propeller has become a research hotspot since their great structural performances and material damping properties can improve the comprehensive performance of the propellers such as increased hydrodynamic performances and reduced pressure fluctuation characteristics. The ducted propeller is a typical marine propulsor, which has a tip clearance between the blade tip and the inner face of the duct that can cause a complex fluid flow around the blades and influence the performance of the propeller. In this research, the tip clearance influence on hydrodynamic performance and pressure fluctuation of a composite ducted propeller compared with a metallic equivalent is calculated using a two-way fluid-structure interaction (FSI) method. The results indicate that the use of composite materials with a proper stacking sequence on the ducted propeller blade with a smaller tip clearance size corresponding to GSR = 0.417 can achieve good hydrodynamic properties for the propeller, and it has a significant inhibiting effect on pressure fluctuations on the blade surface.