Unsteady RANS simulation of a surface piercing propeller in oblique flow

Conventional propellers might undergo severe cavitation at high speeds and this phenomenon not only affects the efficiency of the propeller, but also may result in serious damages in propulsion system. Due to their special geometries, surface piercing propellers (SPPs) overcome this problem and achieve high efficiencies in high speeds. Therefore, SPPs are one of the popular propulsors for high-speed crafts. The present research is aimed to pursue SPP's performance in the off-design conditions. URANS method was used to study the performance of the 841-B SPP (a case with some available experimental results; Olofsson, 1996) in several immersion ratios (I = 33%, 50%, 75% and 100%) and maneuvering conditions (incident angles of 0°, 10° and 20°). The free surface was simulated using VOF method. Off-design conditions might exert extra or less forces and torques on the propeller's blade. In the present research for 841-B SPP, it was found that a maneuver condition would increase the thrust and torque coefficient for some cases. The sliding mesh technique was utilized to simulate the 841-B SPP performance, which unlike the multiple reference frame (MRF) technique, this technique allows to capture the blades hit on the water surface in transient mode simulations.