RANS simulation of cavitation and hull pressure fluctuation for marine propeller operating behind-hull condition

Simulations of cavitation flow and hull pressure fluctuation for a marine propeller operating behind a hull using the unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations (RANS) are presented. A full hull body submerged under the free surface is modeled in the computational domain to simulate directly the wake field of the ship at the propeller plane. Simulations are performed in design and ballast draught conditions to study the effect of cavitation number. And two propellers with slightly different geometry are simulated to validate the detectability of the numerical simulation. All simulations are performed using a commercial CFD software FLUENT. Cavitation patterns of the simulations show good agreement with the experimental results carried out in Samsung CAvitation Tunnel (SCAT). The simulation results for the hull pressure fluctuation induced by a propeller are also compared with the experimental results showing good agreement in the tendency and amplitude, especially, for the first blade frequency.