Validation of RANS predictions of open water performance of a highly skewed propeller with experiments

The paper presents a validation study of a RANS prediction of open water characteristics of a highly skewed propeller in full range advance-ratio. Computational results are compared with open water data, and extensively validated at one loading with paint test, cavitation inception test and PIV measurements. Except at two extreme off-design loads, the difference between prediction and measurement is less than 3% for KT and less than 5% for KQ at a wide range of advance ratios. While this can be considered as good agreement with experiment for KT and KQ, an attempt is made to critically analyze the predicted flow detail and some possible deficiency of the existing RANS method is discussed. Part of the work was carried out within the EU-funded research project “LEADING EDGE2 ”.