Numerical Analysis and Hydrodynamic Interactions for Propeller-Rudder System in Commercial Bulk Carriers

Interaction of the propeller-rudder system is important in design of propulsion system as well as maneuvering for all types of ships. This paper is presented to analyze the propeller-rudder system using ANSYS-Fluent commercial software. The results of calculating the hydrodynamic dimensionless coefficients, streamlines and pressure distribution on the propeller-rudder are presented and compared in different advance coefficients. Also, hydrodynamic coefficients of the propeller-rudder have been studied and compared at various rudder angles of 0, 10, 20 and 30 degrees. In all cases, the efficiency increases with increasing the advance coefficient, however the torque and thrust coefficients decreases. So, in high advance coefficient, the existence of the rudder the efficiency increases by 3% and with increasing the angle of the rudder, this effect is double (6%). The existence of the rudder in the low advance coefficients, torque and thrust coefficients increases by 5% and 9% respectively. In high advance coefficients, the angle of the rudder is causes the torque coefficient and trusted coefficient to increase 17% and 9% respectively. In the existence of the rudder-propeller to angle of 10 [deg.] and without propeller to an angle of 20, the increasing of advance coefficient does not have significant effect on the lift and drag coefficients.