Research on calculation methods of ship model self-propulsion prediction

The interactions between ships and propellers interfere with the performance of both. This paper aims to discuss the current methods of modeling ship-propeller interactions using computational fluid dynamics (CFD): the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equation (RANS) and body force methods. The fully resolved propeller method with the RANS solver, the prescribed body force method, and the boundary element method (BEM) and RANS coupled iterative body force method were used to predict the propulsive performance and calculate the self-propulsion point of a KRISO container ship model. For the RANS-BEM iterative body force method, a new method without nesting iteration is adopted to calculate the self-propulsion point. An additional discussion of self-propulsion factors is presented based on these results. Calculation results showed good agreement with model test results. The RANS method performs better at obtaining detailed flow field information and at analyzing the propeller plane wake fields on a propeller plane. The body force method has a unique advantage in terms of computational efficiency for performance evaluations of both ships and propellers.