Computational Analysis of Propeller Sheet Cavitation and Propeller-ship Interaction

This paper describes a computational procedure which is being developed for the practical analysis of propeller sheet cavitation and propeller-ship interaction including hull pressure fluctuations. The computational procedure consists of three different, coupled methods: (i) a RANS method for the analysis of the viscous flow around the ship hull and the determination of the velocity field in the propeller plane, (ii) a boundary element method for incompressible potential flow developed for the analysis of propeller performance including sheet cavity extent and volume, and (iii) a boundary element method which solves the acoustic wave equation to compute the propeller radiated pressure fluctuations on the ship hull. The background to the three methods and the coupling procedures are briefly described followed by a discussion on validation work. The validation work concentrates on the ship wake field, the propeller sheet cavity extent and the hull pressure fluctuations for model scale as well as full scale. The differences found between model scale and full scale are used to discuss implications for model-scale testing.