Outlook on marine propeller noise and cavitation modelling

Abstract

Two computational studies are presented in this paper. First, the Potsdam Propeller Test Case which is used to demonstrate the capabilities of mass transfer cavitation models, more precisely the model by Sauer and Schnerr, in tackling the problem of marine propeller cavitation. It is shown that the extents of the predicted cavitation regions agree well with the experiment but suffer from the fact that the tip vortices and the associated low pressure regions are under resolved when URANS is utilised. Next, preliminary results from the study of cavitation noise modelling attempt are presented for a NACA 0009 section, used as a simplified representation of a propeller blade. Large Eddy Simulation and Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings porous acoustic analogy are used in order to estimate the cavitation-induced noise. Results indicate that the discussed approach provides the means for identifying low-frequency noise generation mechanisms in the flow, yielding sound pressure levels of the order of 40 dB re 20 mPa, but does not allow for finescale bubble dynamics to be resolved. One may conclude that the discussed approach is a viable option to predict large parts of marine propeller noise spectra but further work is needed in order to account for the high frequency components.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Artur Konrad Lidtke: orcid.org/0000-0002-2687-3083

ORCID for Stephen R. Turnock: orcid.org/0000-0001-6288-0400

ORCID for Victor F. Humphrey: orcid.org/0000-0002-3580-5373

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