Numerical Approach Based on Solving 3D Navier–Stokes Equations for Simulation of the Marine Propeller Flow Problems

Abstract

The report presents the approach implemented in the Russian LOGOS software package for the numerical simulation of the marine propeller flow problems using unstructured computational meshes automatically generated by the mesh generator. This approach includes a computational model based on the Navier–Stokes equation system and written with respect to the physical process: the turbulent nature of flow with transient points is accounted using the Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes method and the k–ω SST model of turbulence by Menter along with the γ–Reθ (Gamma Re Theta) laminar-turbulent transition model; the Volume of Fluid method supplemented with the Schnerr–Sauer cavitation model is used to simulate the cavitation processes; a rotating propeller is simulated by a moving computational mesh and the GGI method to provide conformity of the solutions on adjacent boundaries of arbitrarily-shaped unstructured meshes of the two domains. The specific features of the numerical algorithms in use are described. The method validation results are given; they were obtained because of the problems of finding the performance curves of model-scale propellers in open water, namely the problems of finding the performance of propellers KP505 and IB without consideration of cavitation and the performance of propellers VP1304 and C5 under cavitation conditions. The paper demonstrates that the numerical simulation method presented allows for obtaining sufficiently accurate results to predict the main hydrodynamic characteristics for most modes of operation of the propellers.