An analysis of hydrodynamics and noise behavior for submerged propeller in various conditions by experimental and numerical methods

In this study hydrodynamics and noise behavior of a marine propeller is analyzed through numerical and experimental methods. In order to find out the conditions of initiation and development of cavitation، numerical analysis is carried out through finite volume method (FVM) for various rotational velocities. Moreover، hydrodynamics of the propeller is tested in the cavitation tunnel and the results are compared against numerical simulations. Second، the flow results obtained in the first step were used as the input to extract the sound pressure levels (SPLs) in the Ffowcs Williams–Hawkings (FW-H) formulation، to predict the far field noise. In addition، the behavior of the obtained SPL was studied and a good agreement was observed between our data and the previous works results. Similarly، experimental results collected from two hydrophones are compared with numerical simulations. In this case، cavitation is initiated and developed by either increasing the propeller’s rotational velocity in fixed pressure or dropping pressure while keeping the velocity constant. The signals registered at the two hydrophones are then filtered within one-third octave bands. The outcomes demonstrate a negligible deviation between numerical and experimental results for both noise and hydrodynamics tests.