Marine Propeller Optimization Based on a Novel Parametric Model

Abstract

This paper presents a novel parametric model of marine propellers based on Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines. It involves eight parameters and five categories of spanwise parameter distributions, which are utilized for determining hydrofoil and blade shapes. 20 different hydrofoils and 5 types of well-known marine propellers are employed to detect the accuracy of the proposed parametric model. Furthermore, a propeller optimization problem was addressed with the aid of the parametric model. In the propeller optimization problem, a common AU-series propeller is treated as the baseline propeller. The proposed parametric model is used for the representation and deformation of the propeller geometric model. A hydrodynamic performance evaluation model is developed based on gene expression programming. Also, non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II is used in the applications of the propeller optimization problem. The results demonstrate that the accuracy of the proposed parametric model satisfies the engineering requirements well, and a propeller with higher efficiency than the baseline propeller can be derived by settling the propeller optimization problem.