The One-Way FSI Method Based on RANS-FEM for the Open Water Test of a Marine Propeller at the Different Loading Conditions

Abstract

This paper aims to assess a new fluid–structure interaction (FSI) coupling approach for the vp1304 propeller to predict pressure and stress distributions with a low-cost and high-precision approach with the ability of repeatability for the number of different structural sets involved, other materials, or layup methods. An outline of the present coupling approach is based on an open-access software (OpenFOAM) as a fluid solver, and Abaqus used to evaluate and predict the blade’s deformation and strength in dry condition mode, which means the added mass effects due to propeller blades vibration is neglected. Wherein the imposed pressures on the blade surfaces are extracted for all time-steps. Then, these pressures are transferred to the structural solver as a load condition. Although this coupling approach was verified formerly (wedge impact), for the case in-hand, a further verification case, open water test, was performed to evaluate the hydrodynamic part of the solution with an e = 7.5% average error. A key factor for the current coupling approach is the rotational rate interrelated between two solution domains, which should be carefully applied in each time-step. Finally, the propeller strength assessment was performed by considering the blades’ stress and strain for different load conditions.