A Numerical Study on Surface-piercing Propellers using Sliding Mesh Method via Openfoam Software

Abstract

Surface-piercing propellers (SPP) are known as one of the most efficient propellers in marine sciences and maritime industries. In this study, different types of simulations were performed on an SPP in various rotational speeds in open water conditions, and a numerical study was also carried out on a particular type of such propellers. In fact the main purpose of this paper is comparing the simulation results with the experimental results from past in order to derive a trustable soultion for future works. For this purpose, the surface-piercing propeller was simulated by OpenFoam software (an open source software with high range of capabilities) in order to analyze the results. The performance curve was then plotted and compared with the ones from open water tests. In this case the turbulance model of K-Epsilon RNG was used which is capable of increasing Y+ to 300 which is monitored at the end of the simulation with the maximum amount of 315 and the average of 80. Results showed that the curves followed the same pattern and trends in the numerical study, and the report pointed to similar findings. In conclusion, it was proved that the sliding mesh method was a proper way for simulating propellers, particularly SPPs. The curves for thrust and torque coefficients of the SPP were also compared with the literature and the efficiency curve was plotted.

Keywords

• openfoam software
• sliding mesh
• surface-piercing propellers
• thrust coefficient
• torque coefficient