Unsteady Performance of 3-Dimensional Hydrofoil by the B-Spline Higher-Order Panel Method

Abstract

The lifting-surface programs have been used successfully in practice for the design and global performance prediction of the marine propellers. To predict the pressures on the blade for the strength analysis, the constant panel method has been a good alternative. To meet the need for more accurate information on the pressure near the tip region and the trailing edge of the blade, the higher order panel method (HiPan, hereinafter) based on a B-spline is developed and now available. However, there is an increasing demand to get the highly reliable unsteady behavior of the pressure near the tip region by the HiPan. The ultimate goal of our efforts is to develop the fully unsteady higher order panel code for the propeller. As an interim stage to the final goal, we here show the numerical procedure applicable to unsteady problems of the three dimensional hydrofoil in a sinusoidal gust and heave motions.