LES of propeller cavitation

Cavitation over a five bladed marine propeller (P4381) is studied using large eddy simulations (LES) at Re = 894,000. The simulations use the homogeneous mixture model, where the mixture of water and vapor is treated as a single compressible fluid. The numerical method developed by Gnanaskandan and Mahesh (IJMF. vol. 70, April 2016) is extended to solve the governing equations in the rotating frame of reference using absolute velocity. Flow over the propeller is simulated at design advance ratio (J = 0.89) under wetted (σ =∞) and thrust break down conditions (σ = 0.6). Propeller loads obtained from the simulations are compared to the experiments and flow field obtained using LES is discussed.