Numerical Investigation of Viscous Flow Velocity Field around a Marine Cavitating Propeller

• Main Author: Zhifeng Zhu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2014-11-01
• Series: Advances in Mechanical Engineering
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/272316

Velocity field around a ship cavitating propeller is investigated based on the viscous multiphase flow theory. Using a hybrid grid, the unsteady Navier-stokes (N-S) and the bubble dynamics equations are solved in this paper to predict the velocity in a propeller wake and the vapor volume fraction on the back side of propeller blade for a uniform inflow. Compared with experimental results, the numerical predictions of cavitation and axial velocity coincide with the measured data. The evolution of tip vortex is shown, and the interaction between the tip vortex of the current blade and the wake of the next one occurs in the far propeller wake. The frequency of velocity signals changes from shaft rate to blade rate. The phenomena reflect the instability of propeller wake.