An advanced design method for propellers behind bodies of revolution

The flow around the unshrouded marine propellers operating in the wake of an axisymmetric body is rotational and tridimensional. An inverse method based on the model of inviscid and rotational fluid and coupling two complementary steps (axisymmetric computation + 3D panel method) is proposed for the design of the marine propellers. The meridional flow computation leads to the determination of axisymmetrical stream sheets as well as the approximate camber surface of the blades and gives a good estimation of the surface of the free vortex wake. The new aspects developed in this method are the involvement of the contraction and the stretching of the free vortex wake, the rotational character of the incoming flow in the axisymmetric computation with tridimensional effects due to 3D panel method. To cite this article: N. Settou, B. Viney, C. R. Mecanique 331 (2003).