Improved hydrodynamic analysis of marine propellers using a B-spline-based higher-order panel method

Abstract

An improved hydrodynamic analysis of marine propellers based on a B-spline higher-order panel method is presented. The existing potential-based panel methods inevitably result in the degradation of the accuracy, especially near the trailing edge and the tip of the lift-generating surface. However, in the present method, the order of the B-splines used to represent body geometries and potentials can be increased without limit and, hence, solutions of any order can be obtained. In addition, the wake roll-up phenomenon of the propeller is adopted and its effects are investigated. The alignment procedure which satisfies the kinematic and dynamic boundary conditions on the shedding wake surface has been investigated by taking a close look at the case of marine propellers. In this work, we show that wake roll-up modeling gives improved results for the flow of extreme tip such as r/R = 0.99. The present method is validated by comparing it to the existing numerical and experimental results.