Abstract :
The paper presents the state-of-the-art review of the contemporary computational methods in ship propulsor hydrodynamics, pointing out the crucial problems on which the international researchers community attention is, or should be, focused. The review is based on papers presented at important international conferences within the last four years. At the beginning four basic categories of the computational fluid mechanics methods are briefly presented: traditional lifting line and lifting surface, Boundary Element Methods, Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes Equations and Large Eddy Simulation or Direct Numerical Simulation methods. Then the problems with application of these methods to specific propulsor hydrodynamic problems are discussed in greater detail. This presentation starts with the narrowly defined design procedures, i.e. determination of propeller geometry fulfilling the required dynamic parameters: ship speed, propeller thrust and rpm with maximum efficiency. Then the computations of the complicated flow around a propeller of given geometry are presented, including the complicated cases of manoeuvring propellers or hydro-elastic effects. Subsequently the important problems of determination of propellergenerated vortex wakes and prediction of the different forms of cavitation and their hydrodynamic consequences are discussed. A separate section is devoted to unconventional propulsors, concentrating on the most important: pod propulsors and waterjets. The paper ends with a summary pointing out the directions for future research and applications of computational methods in propulsor hydrodynamics.
