The cavitation phenomenon of propellers has always been a hot topic of research in the field of marine engineering. In order to study the cavitation and hydrodynamic characteristics of rough propellers in the flow field. This paper models the effect of wall functions on roughness and uses the SST k − ω turbulence model and Schnerr-Sauer cavitation model for numerical simulation. The numerical calculation of the working conditions uses the operating parameters of the propeller under actual sailing conditions, and the details of the flow field have been predicted by the RANS method. By analyzing and comparing the numerical results of smooth and rough propellers in terms of hydrodynamic performance, cavitation pattern and velocity distribution, the influence mechanism of surface roughness on the cavitation phenomenon of propellers is investigated.