COMPARISON BETWEEN RANSE CALCULATIONS AND PANEL METHOD RESULTS FOR THE HYDRODYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF MARINE PROPELLERS

摘要

The study of the main propeller is a priority research theme for naval hydrodynamics owing to the complexity of the related physical phenomena and its impact on the overall ship design. CETENA is involved in R&D activities on the modelling of the propeller flow using both potential (panel methods) and viscous (RANSE solvers) flow methods.rnThe work presented in this paper regards a validation study carried out for a high skewed propeller geometry and concerning a comparison between experimental data, RANSE and panel method results were carried out. The RANSE calculation results were carried out within the European-founded project "LEADING EDGE" (Contract No: G3RD-CT-2002-00818).rnA detailed analysis was performed in order to define the better panel grid for the propeller, in order to choose the panel grid that lead to the better performance result and the less time consuming. This sensitivity analysis was carried out for the design operating condition. Then validation against experimental data was carried out in open water conditions, in terms of thrust, torque and efficiency coefficients. At the end, for a single operating condition, RANSE calculations were carried out, in order to compare the pressure distributions over the blade sections. This kind of comparison makes it possible to relate the panel method pressure results to the viscous phenomena that is possible to study by RANSE calculation, especially for tip vortex, trailing vortex and streamlines over the blade.