CFD simulation of propeller and rudder performance when using additional thrust fins

To analyse a possible way to improve the propulsion performance of ships,the unstructured grid and the Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes equations were used to calculate the performance of a propeller and rudder fitted with additional thrust fins in the viscous flow field.The computational fluid dynamics software FLUENT was used to simulate the thrust and torque coefficient as a function of the advance coefficient of propeller and the thrust efficiency of additional thrust fins. The pressure and velocity flow behind the propeller was calculated. The geometrical nodes of the propeller were constituted by FORTRAN program and the NUMBS method was used to create a configuration of the propeller,which was then used by GAMMBIT to generate the calculation model. The thrust efficiency of fins was calculated as a function of the number of additional fins and the attack angles. The results of the calculations agree fairly well with experimental data,which shows that the viscous flow solution we present is useful in simulating the performance of propellers and rudders with additional fins.