Numerical hydrodynamic evaluation of propeller (with hub taper) and podded drive in azimuthing conditions

This paper aims to predict the hydrodynamic forces on a propeller with different hub taper angles and a podded drive unit in azimuthing conditions. In order to evaluate the propulsive performance of the podded drive system, a Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) solver is employed. The method has been first verified by a single propeller with different hub taper angles. The performance curves of the propellers, obtained by numerical methods, have been compared to and validated with experimental results. In the next step, the method has been extended to the podded drive unit for both puller and pusher configurations. The yaw angles of the podded drives are set to vary from −30° to +30° with 5° increments. The propulsive characteristics, including the torque and thrust of the propeller, the axial force, and the side force of the unit are presented as functions of the advance velocity ratio and yaw angle. Computational results are compared to the available experimental data. Finally, it is shown there is good agreement between the experimental measurements and the results of the present numerical method.