Propeller tip vortex cavitation mitigation using roughness

Paper in proceedings, 2019

This paper presents an investigation of roughness application on marine propellers in order to alter their tip vortex properties, and consequently mitigate tip vortex cavitation. SST kOmega model along with a curvature correction is employed to simulate the flow on an appropriate grid resolution for tip vortex propagation, at least 32 cells per vortex diameter. The roughness is modelled by using a rough wall function to increase the turbulent properties in roughed areas. In one case, roughness geometry is included as a part of the blade geometry, and the flow around them are resolved. To minimize the negative effects of the roughness on the propeller performance, the roughness area is optimized by simultaneous consideration of the tip vortex mitigation and performance degradation. For the considered operating condition, it is found that having roughness on the tip region of suction side can reduce the cavitation inception by 18 % while keeping the performance degradation in a reasonable range, less than 2%.