Flow Features of Propeller Wakes Impinging on a Circular Disk Through Unsteady Simulations

The present study concerns the numerical investigation of placing a propeller upstream of a thin disk flow. The investigation is performed with an unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) simulation approach using the open-source code OpenFOAM. Three different simulations are performed: disk flow, propeller flow, and propeller–disk flow. A widely used marine propeller, INSEAN E779A, is employed for the current study, and the propeller flow is simulated using the cyclic arbitrary mesh interface (Cyclic AMI) approach. The propeller wake dynamically interacts with the disk shear layer and changes the flow in front of the disk. The symmetry of the flow gets broken, and the size of the bubble also increases due to the propeller wake. The interaction between recirculating vortex rings as the flow develops is examined using three-dimensional flow features. The present study may be relevant to propeller–body interactions in aerospace and marine applications as well as finding approaches for enhancing mixing.