A VISCOUS/INVISCID COUPLED FORMULATION FOR UNSTEADY SHEET CAVITATION MODELLING OF MARINE PROPELLERS

The theoretical modelling of marine propeller cavitation is addressed. The objective is to develop an enhanced inviscid-flow methodology to be integrated into a hybrid viscous/inviscid approach for the analysis and design of marine propulsors at model scale. The proposed methodology is based on a non-linear boundary integral formulation that includes trailing vorticity analysis, boundary layer solution and sheet cavitation modelling. The theoretical approach is described with emphasis on the procedure to combine models into an integrated boundary element method. Numerical results by the proposed methodology are presented in order to verify the numerical scheme and to validate propeller flow and cavitation pattern predictions against experimental data.