A Numerical Investigation into the Influence of Bionic Ridge Structures on the Cavitation Performance of Marine Propellers

With the development of the large and high-speed ships, the cavitation and radiated noise of marine propellers have been more and more concerned. This paper presents a numerical simulation of marine propellers with the ridge structures, inspired by the airfoils with the bionic ridge surfaces. The bionic method is applied to redesign the blade sections of a marine propeller, and the ridge structures are arranged between the leading edge and the thickest point. Four bionic propellers are established by changing the style and distribution area of the ridge structures on the blade surface. The cavitation morphology, pressure distribution and open water characteristics are analyzed with the software STAR CCM + . The numerical model is validated with the test data and the results show that the ridged structures can make the low-pressure area on the blade surface more dispersed and suppress cavitation. Compared with the prototype propeller, the four bionic propellers with the ridge structures can reduce the cavitation area by 26% (with an advance speed coefficient of 0.5) to 30% (with an advance speed coefficient of 0.3) at medium and low advance speeds. Besides, one of the bionic propellers can improve the thrust and efficiency by 14.93% and 1.61% respectively at high advance speeds.