Investigation of added mass and damping coefficients of underwater rotating propeller using a frequency-domain panel method

For a propeller vibrating in a fluid, the added mass and damping coefficients characterize the hydrodynamic forces and moments acting on the propeller, which are of great importance for evaluation of the vibration behaviors of submerged propellers. The present paper is concerned with the development of a numerical method for predicting the added mass and damping coefficients of a rotating marine propeller immersed in water. The three-dimensional panel method in frequency-domain is employed to establish the strongly coupled fluid-structure interaction models of the propellers to compute the added mass and damping coefficients. The relationship between the added mass and damping matrices due to the whole vibration of a rotating propeller and the local vibrations of the propeller blades is considered. Results of the present method are compared with those experimental and numerical data available in the literature. Very good agreement is achieved. The differences of the added mass and damping coefficients due to propeller vibrations of two types are analyzed. The results show that the added mass and damping coefficients of a submerged rotating propeller are functions of the ratio of oscillation frequency of rigid propeller fv to the blade frequency fb, and the advance ratio. In addition, the non-penetration boundary conditions should be imposed on the deformed blade surface for predicting the added mass and damping coefficients m32, m62, c32 and c62, where m32(c32) and m62(c62) denote mass (damping) coefficients related to the lateral force and bending moment in the z direction induced by the transversal vibration in the y direction. Absolute values of all coefficients in the added mass matrix decrease as the ratio fv/fb is increased, and the absolute values of the coefficients in the added damping matrix increases with an increase in the advance ratio.