Experimental and Numerical Investigation of the Unsteady Flow around a Propeller

In the present paper the analysis of the flow around the propeller of a twin screw vessel is performed both experimentally by Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) measurements and numerically by a potential flow solver. The velocity fields obtained through the experimental survey have been used to assess the accuracy of the solver for the application to modern propellers, featuring rather extreme geometries and large pitch variations. The results show that, in spite of the approximations introduced, the solver is able to capture the main features of the flow. The combined use of numerical and experimental tools reveals itself as a fundamental step for a deep comprehension of phenomena taking place in modern ship units.