J. Ocean Univ.

China (Oceanic and Coastal Sea Research)

DOI 10.1007/s11802-011-1797-2
ISSN 1672-5182, 2011 10 (4): 314-324
http://www.ouc.edu.cn/xbywb/
E-mail:xbywb@ouc.edu.cn

Hydrodynamic Efficiency Improvement of the High Skew

Propeller for the Underwater Vehicle Under Surface
and Submerged Conditions
Hassan Ghassemi*, and Parviz Ghadimi

Department of Marine Technology, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

(Received October 11, 2010; revised January 24, 2011; accepted August 14, 2011)
Ocean University of China, Science Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011

Abstract An algorithm based on the Boundary Element Method (BEM) is presented for designing the High Skew Propeller (HSP)
used in an Underwater Vehicle (UV). Since UVs operate under two different kinds of working conditions (i.e. surface and submerged
conditions), the design of such a propeller is an unwieldy task. This is mainly due to the fact that the resistance forces as well as the
vessel efficiency under these conditions are significantly different. Therefore, some factors are necessary for the design of the opti-
mum propeller to utilize the power under the mentioned conditions. The design objectives of the optimum propeller are to obtain the
highest possible thrust and efficiency with the minimum torque. For the current UV, the main dimensions of the propeller are pre-
dicted based on the given required thrust and the defined operating conditions. These dimensions (number of blades, pitch, diameter,
expanded area ratio, thickness and camber) are determined through iterative procedure. Because the propeller operates at the stern of
the UV where the inflow velocity to the propeller is non-uniform, a 5-blade HSP is preferred for running the UV. Finally, the propel-
ler is designed based on the numerical calculations to acquire the improved hydrodynamic efficiency.

Key words underwater vehicle; propeller design factors; high skew propeller; surface and submerged conditions; hydrodynamic
propeller efficiency

the production of the high skew angle of the propeller is

1 Introduction
The most widespread marine propulsion system is a
propeller which works behind an UV in order to over-
come the resistance and generate the required thrust. The
flow entering the propeller is non-uniform and unsteady
due to the existence of a boundary layer and the interac-
tion with other devices such as the hull, bridge and the
hydroplanes. The hydroplanes are installed at the stern
and close to the propeller in the form of a plus (+) mark.
The inflow wake into the propeller is altered by the hy-
droplanes. Therefore, the interaction between the propel-
ler and the hydroplane is of great consequence in the
propeller design. Here, two significant factors should be
noted, one being the choice of the propellers blade num-
ber and the other the stern wake flow field of the vessel
that mostly depends on the hull form which mandates
every vessel to adopt its own special wake flow. Another
essential factor in the design of a UV propeller is the
measure of its capability in preventing or diminishing the
cavitation and vibration in order to make the UV un-
traceable. The last factor to be considered is the fact that
* Corresponding author. Tel: 0098-21-64543112
E-mail: gasemi@aut.ac.ir
strongly affected by the appropriateness of the design of a
UV propeller. In view of all the cited important factors, to
achieve a better hydrodynamic performance, the efficient
design of the propeller becomes highly decisive. Predic-
tion or calculation of the performance of the marine pro-
pellers which operate in a non-uniform flow field is a
very important matter for hydrodynamic specialists and
designers, because these calculations and predictions play
important roles in attaining the beneficial design speed of
the vessels. The most important criteria for the propeller
design are the maximum required thrust and efficiency,
minimum torque and the least negative pressure coeffi-
cient to avoid or mitigate cavitation (Breslin and Ander-
sen, 1994; Carlton, 2007; Burcher and Rydill, 1994).
Propeller is a lifting body that generates thrust to over-
come resistance. The major component of the thrust is
from the pressure while the effect of the viscosity is much
less. For this reason, the potential theory may be efficient
for the hydrodynamic analysis of the propeller using the
boundary element method. The full prediction by ana-
lytical means of the viscous boundary layer for a propel-
ler is a very complex procedure, and at the present time
only partial success has been achieved using large com-
putational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes. It can be said that
the BEM is efficient and cost-effective for lifting body
 Ghassemi et al. / J. Ocean Univ. China (Oceanic and Coastal Sea Research) 2011 10 (4): 314-324 315

analysis in which the pressure term is dominant, while the the boundary element method. Numerical computation
CFD is more acceptable and powerful for the non-lifting comprises the pressure distribution and the propeller hy-
bodies where the viscous term is dominant. drodynamic performance. Here, a parametric study was
During the past two decades many researchers have performed to investigate the effect of some factors that
employed the BEM for the lifting bodies of marine ele- involve the propeller selection, and based on the achieved
ments like propeller, hydrofoil, rudder, submarine hydro- results a proper propeller was selected and analyzed.
plane and fin stabilizer. Hsin et al. (1991) employed this The following sections are organized as follows. Oper-
method for the analysis of HSP. Kinnas and Hsin (1992) ating conditions of the UV are described in Section 2. The
applied the BEM for the analysis of unsteady flow around governing equations of the potential-based BEM is de-
the complex propeller geometry. Kim et al. (2009), through scribed in Section 3. The propeller selection parameters
the usage of the BEM and by refining the geometry of a for the UV are given in Section 4. The numerical results
propeller by revising the blade sections, aligned them are presented in Section 5, and Section 6 is given for the
with surface streamlines and used this model to perform conclusions.
numerical simulations and open water tests and reported
an increase in propeller efficiency. On the other hand,
Benini (2004) illustrated the implementation of the com- 2 Operating Conditions of the UV
bined momentum-blade element theory for the light and Various underwater marine vehicles are known, such as
moderately loaded propellers and showed its relevance to submarine, tourist UV, torpedoes and seabed research UV.
the design and analysis procedure. Karafiath et al. (2001) All of them use the propeller for obtaining forward speed.
adopted the 6-blade skew propeller to improve the hy- Submarine is working under both surface and submerged
drodynamic efficiency for the patrol boat. conditions. When it is running in surface condition, the
In this numerical scheme, in comparison with some total resistance includes wave-making resistance, fric-
other methods (finite difference, finite element or finite tional resistance and form resistance; under submerged
volume), element generation is carried out at the bound- condition, the wave-making resistance disappears. Fig.1
ary of the body, which leads to the reduction of comput- demonstrates typical resistance coefficients for the UV
ing time and costs. Application of this method is not lim- under surface condition.
ited to the fields of hydrodynamics and fluid mechanics,
but it is also utilized in other fields of engineering such as
structural mechanics, dynamics, and vibration. In recent
years, this method has been repeatedly used as a compu-
tational tool for the hydrodynamic analysis of the vessels
and is quite capable of performing flow analysis around
any shape of the body (Felice et al., 2009; Andersen et al.,
2009). BEM is also considered to be an acceptable and
appropriate tool for the design and analysis of the lifting
surfaces such as hydrofoils and propellers. In the analysis
of these bodies, Kutta boundary condition is very impor-
tant. This boundary condition indicates that the pressure
difference at the suction and pressure surfaces of the
trailing edge should be zero.
Using the Greens theorem, the velocity potential at
every point can be expressed as an integral equation at all
parts of the boundary and subsequently potential field is Fig.1 Typical resistance coefficients for the UV under
determined at each point. Using this method, the surfaces surface condition.
of the propeller and the trailing sheet vortex surface
(helical for a propeller) are divided into hyperboloid- Total resistance coefficient of the UV is the summation
shaped elements, and by considering a doublet and a of three components as follows:
source at each element and solving the resulting system of
equations, the potential and pressure fields are determined. CT ( Fn , R n ) = CW ( Fn ) + C F ( R n ) + C Form ( Fn , R n ) , (1)
In addition, the thrust and torque of the propeller are cal-
where Fn and Rn are the Froude and Reynolds numbers,
culated.
respectively. Form resistance coefficient is determined by
Procedures and the main tasks involved in this method
include the grid generation (element generation), calcula- CForm=kCF .
tion of the integral influence coefficient of the source and
doublet singularities at every element, simultaneous solu- Therefore, Eq. (1) is defined by
tions of the equations involving the singularity strength, CT=CW+ CF (1+k),
local velocities, total pressure, forces and torques. In this
paper, hydrodynamic analysis and design of the propeller where k is the form factor. For the submarine, this factor
for a UV with a displacement of 120 t is computed using is small because the body is slender and separation flow