CFD Simulation Model for Optimum Design of B-Series Propeller using Multiple Reference Frame (MRF)

Abstract

Propulsion system is one of ship systems which require more attention, especially on propeller design. The propeller design greatly affects the ship speed. It is expected to be able to have maximum value of thrust coefficient and efficiency. Hence, the optimum design of propeller can be obtained by multi objective optimization process. In this study, a preliminary optimization is applied to B-series propeller with the Non-dominated Sort Genetic Algorithm-II (NSGA-II). The purpose of this study is to find out the optimum performance of B-series propeller. The thrust coefficient and open water efficiency are maximized in the optimization process which are then subjected to constraint function imposed by required thrust. The optimization is carried out to blade number Z=3 and Z=5. The population of design space is obtained after running the optimization program. The final optimum design parameter is considered using crowding distance value in the population. The result obtained by NSGA-II showed that the optimum design for Z=3 are B3-787, B3-314, B3-560, and Z=5 are B5-416, B5-501, B5-476 respectively. In addition, the Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis (CFD) is employed to investigate the characteristic of each propeller model by using Multi Reference Frame (MRF) approach. The CFD results showed that the highest thrust value of the Z=3 is 172.38 kN generated by the B3-787 whereas the highest thrust value of Z=5 is 168.80 kN generated by the B5-501 model.