A cavitating propeller blade optimization in a given wake

Conference poster, 2004

A numerical optimization method has been developed to optimize a cavitating propeller blade shape in a given wake.The method comprises two parts which can be defined as single objective and multi-objective optimization. In single objective optimization,only efficieny is maximized whilst cavitation is controlled by Keller Criterion and maximum cavity volum restriction. In multi objecive optimization, efficiency is maximized and pressure amplitude induced by the propeller is minimized. MPUF is used to calculate the performance of propellers and SOFT is used for numerical optimization. Different optimizers in SOFT have been compared and DHC is chosen as final optimizer.A parametrical study of DHC has been done to choose a set of optimum parameters which will be used in the future optimization work.The performance of optimum propeller is compared with that of the original propeller and results show promising improvement of efficiency and decrease of pressure amplitude.