Comparative analysis of the hydrodynamic performance of pre-swirl stator pump-jet propulsor under different rotational speeds

Abstract

The pump-jet propulsor(PJP) performances under various rotational speeds (20~50 r/s) are analyzed for further studying the influence of the Reynolds number (Re) on the hydrodynamics of PJP, before this, the calculation model is verified by using the experiment data, it proves the present numerical method is proper to make a further study. The results indicate both the hydrodynamic coefficients of PJP and PJP components and the contours with dimensionless variables are present high similarity, yet the Re has the slight effect on the components performance, among which, the force coefficient of rotor is the least affected, with a relative error no more than 1%. Followed is the force coefficient of rotor stator, the maximum error is 2.1%, since the force of duct and stator is so low that has the slight effect on PJP, the total force error is less than 2%. However, the torque coefficient error is bigger with a value of about 3%. Besides, it is found that all hydrodynamic coefficients vary monotonically with rotating speed, the higher Re caused by increasing the rotational speed will contribute to enhance the work ability of rotor, thus cause a lower pressure at vortex core, and change the trajectory of TLV.