Taylor expansion boundary element method for propeller steady hydrodynamic performance prediction

Abstract

In this study, in order to improve the pressure distribution prediction of propellers in open water, the constant panel method and the zero-order and first-order Taylor expansion boundary element method (TEBEM) based on the source and dipole distribution are used to predict the constant hydrodynamic performance of propellers. For the constant panel method, the interpolation method developed by Yanagizawa is used to obtain the velocity distribution on the object source. The zero-order TEBEM obtains the velocity distribution by directly solving the potential and calculating the induced velocity from Green's identities, whereas the first-order TEBEM directly solves the induced velocity by taking the induced velocity as an unknown quantity. The open-water performance of general propellers and highly skewed propellers and pressure distribution are predicted using three numerical methods. Numerical experiments indicate that the results of the zero-order and first-order TEBEM have high accuracy, which improves the torque prediction accuracy of the propeller. At the same time, TEBEM effectively reduces the error of pressure distribution prediction at the leading edge and trailing edge.