RANS Simulations for Propeller Open Water Tests in Towing Tank

Abstract

One of the aims of the present work is to investigate the feasibility of the numerical predictions for the open water characteristics of the propellers in various types of vessels by using RANS solver. WAVIS 2.2 is extended to calculate the flows around a propeller in open water conditions. The grid convergence test is performed on DTMB P4119 propeller. The computational results, thrust and torque coefficients (KT and KQ) are compared with the experimental data at a wide range of advance coefficient. The target propellers are KP505 of KCS (KRISO Container Ship), KP458 of KVLCC2 (KRISO tanker), and KP632 of KLNG (KRISO LNG carrier). Another aim of this work is to investigate the effects of the open water test set-up at the towing tank, such as free surface, propeller submerged depth, and the shaft housing. The direct calculation of the open water performances for the full scale propeller is also performed and compared with the scale effect corrections by empirical formula from ITTC procedure. The feasibility and some possible deficiencies of the present RANS methods are discussed.