A ship propeller operates in a spatially non-uniform inflow field generated by the vessel hull, skeg and appendages. As the propeller rotates through this wake, each blade experiences continuously varying hydrodynamic loading. This full-scale showcase combines transient propeller CFD with one-way Fluid–Structure Interaction (FSI) to investigate the relationship between the vessel wake, individual blade loading and the resulting structural response. A Moving Reference Frame (MRF) solution is compared with a fully transient Sliding Mesh simulation to investigate the interaction between the propeller and the non-uniform vessel wake, from position-dependent blade loading in MRF to the transient structural response of blades
Propeller CFD & FSI – Blade Loading & Structural Response in a Vessel Wake
