Hydrodynamic performance of propeller in cavitating conditions under different ambient pressures

Abstract

To investigate the propeller cavitation of fast yachts, large ships and autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) under heavy conditions, a MAU 4-40 model propeller is used to predict cavitation inception, cavitation development and hydrodynamic performance curve in cavitating conditions by changing the ambient pressure based on multiphase flow model and cavitation model. After that, the cavitation under non-uniform flow is studied for an AUV self-propulsion with a raked propeller. The numerical results showed that, the critical revolution for cavitation in theory is larger than that in numerical calculation; different critical revolution speeds for cavitation are found in three conditions; the maximum thrust coefficient decreased by 28.5% as the suction side is covered with cavitation; a raked propeller is helpful to decrease cavitation and to move the cavitation area into the trailing edge; The non-uniform inflow from the AUV will result in small cavitation variation.