Nonlinear hydroelastic behavior of propellers using a finite-element method and lifting surface theory

A finite-element method coupled with analysis of a noncavitating lifting surface was used to assess the performance of a marine propeller, including the thrust, torque, efficiency coefficients, and deflections. The formulation used displacements as unknowns in the structural part and the strength of the vortex as unknowns in the fluid part. A coupled matrix derived from the Bernoulli equation and hydrostatic pressure in terms of the strength, of the vortex enforced coupling between the fluid and the structure. The resulting matrix equation was unsymmetric and nonlinear; a Newton-Raphson procedure was used to solve this equation. The numerical results were compared with test data; computed and measured values agreed satisfactorily. We also investigated the effect of blade thickness on the performance and strength of the propeller. We did not consider the fatigue strengh of the propeller in this analysis.