Effect of Inlet Flow-Guide on Hydraulic Loss of Seawater MHD Propeller with Helical Channel

Abstract

Abstract Inlet flow-guide is very important to the hydraulic loss of the whole channel of marine MHD thruster with helical channel. In this paper, variable helix is used as the line-type of flow-guide blade, and helical loop number (N), blade number (n) and blade height (H) (helix height) are established as the main geometric parameters. L 16 (43) orthogonal table was used to design the inlet flow-guide, which contains three factors with four levels of N, n and H. The whole flow filed of helical channel with inlet flow-guide was numerical simulated with Fluent. The results show that the hydraulic loss of the helical channel can be greatly reduced by the inlet flow-guide; The results of orthogonal experimental show that the hydraulic loss of the helical channel is sensitive to the line-type of the guide vane, and the total hydraulic loss increases with the increase of n, increases first and then decreases with the increase of N, and decreases first and then increases with the increase of H.