A numerical investigation of the effect of blade number on the performance of an INSEAN E779A marine propeller in a cavitating flow using computational fluid dynamics

A propeller's thrust coefficient, efficiency, and torque coefficient are important performance characteristics. They can be harmed by the presence of cavitating flow. Previous numerical studies have shown that cavitating flow can damage a marine propeller as well as reduce its performance. The work presented here investigates the effect of blade number variation on the performance of an INSEAN E779A marine propeller in a cavitating flow. The cavitating flow simulations are performed using computational fluid dynamics with four different rotational and inlet speeds using the fully turbulent standard k-ε model and the Schnerr-Sauer cavitation model. The numerical results of varying the number of blades on propeller performance characteristics are presented here. It is concluded that increasing the number of propeller blades improves propeller performance. In contrast, the cavitation area is reduced, but cavitation is more likely to occur as rotational speed increases.