Numerical investigation of toroidal propeller: hydrodynamic and hydroacoustic study
Alireza Nadery, Hassan Bahrami, Amin Najafi, Hassan Ghassemi, Mohammadamin Aminzadeh, Guanghua He
Abstract
Given the widespread use of propellers in various marine vehicles, achieving high efficiency and performance under different operating conditions is crucial. This article investigates the hydrodynamic and hydroacoustic performance of a toroidal propeller and compares it with a B-Series propeller. Numerical simulations were conducted using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based on the finite volume method (FVM) via the commercial STAR-CCM + software. A commonly used propeller, with available experimental and numerical data, was employed to validate the hydroacoustic and hydrodynamic simulations. The simulation results closely aligned with the experimental data. The comparison shows that the toroidal propeller achieves 13.3% higher efficiency under similar operating conditions compared to the B-Series propeller. Additionally, the toroidal propeller significantly reduces noise production. Pressure analysis reveals a reduction of approximately 50% in pressure fluctuations around the toroidal propeller. Moreover, the sound pressure level (SPL) around the toroidal propeller decreases by 2–14 dB (about 2–9%) at the first and second blade passing frequencies (BPF) compared to the B-Series propeller. The results of this study demonstrate the high potential of toroidal propellers for improving hydrodynamic performance and reducing noise in marine applications, which could contribute significantly to the design of advanced propellers and optimisation of marine systems.