Design Optimization of B-series Marine Propeller using NSGA-II, Iterative and Gekko Algorithm

The design of a propeller plays a significant role in naval architecture. Optimization of various design factors is the primary concern for effective and efficient propulsion. This study investigates the optimization of the B-series marine propellers using three different methods, i.e. (i) a non-linear constrained single-objective optimization approach using the Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II), (ii) a python package for dynamic optimization based optimization software ‘Gekko’, (iii) an iterative approach and results were compared with each other. Efficiency is considered as the single objective function whereas three constraints are imposed: cavitation, thrust and strength. Analogous characteristics have been found in the comparison of results from all three methods. Comparing the various factors, this study suggests that, Gekko can be used as the optimization algorithm.