Scale Effects on a Tip Rake Propeller Working in Open Water

Abstract

The scale effect on the accuracy of a numerical simulation in ship hydrodynamics represents an important issue of the propeller numerical analysis. To grasp a better understanding on the influence of this effect, an introspection on the performances of an unconventional propeller is proposed in the present study. The paper describes an investigation of the performances of a tip rake propeller recently chosen as benchmark by the International Towing Tank Conference organization (ITTC hereafter). The numerical simulation is carried out by making use of the ISIS-CFD solver, part of the FineTM/Marine package available in the NUMECA suite. The solver is based on the finite volume method to build the spatial discretization of the governing equations. The incompressible unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes Equations (RANSE) are solved in a global approach. Reported solutions are compared with the experimental data provided by Schiffbau-Versuchsanstalt (SVA) Potsdam GmbH to validate the accuracy of the numerical approach. Since for the full scale the experimental data could not be possible, the ITTC’78 extrapolation method-based proposed by the SVA Potsdam has been taken as a basis for comparisons and discussions. A set of remarks will conclude the paper by providing some guidelines for further approaches in terms of the particulars of the numerics that may be further employed in similar studies.