NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE HYDRODYNAMIC PERFORMANCE OF A PROPELLER CONVERTED FROM FPP TO CPP

A test propeller designed as a fixed pitch (FPP) propeller has been made to operate on CPP principles with geometric modifications to the blade and hub geometry. The hydrodynamic performance of this modified propeller compared to its parent FPP propeller is investigated. The study was solved in a computer environment using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods. The flow around the propeller is modeled as a three-dimensional, time-dependent, incompressible and turbulent flow. The Realizable k-ε turbulence model is commonly chosen to represent and characterize turbulence in fluid flow. It is seen that the optimum efficiency point in propeller design conditions is J=0.8, the negative pitch angle changes of the blades at the advance coefficients below this point, and the positive pitch angle changes at the advance coefficients above this point, the propeller efficiency values exceed the FPP version propeller efficiency values.