Numerical investigation of the hydrodynamic performance of the propeller behind the ship with and without WED

The presented paper numerically carries out the investigation of the hydrodynamic performance of the propeller behind the ship with and without wake equalizing duct (WED). It is mounted in front of the propeller in order to equalize the ship’s wake flow and improve the propeller performance. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis software STAR-CCM solver was adopted to simulate the KP505 propeller behind the KRISO container ship (KCS) using overlapping grid technology and user-defined functions. To obtain the effect of a –duct on propeller performance, the ship bare hull case, the with-propeller case, and the with-propeller-and-duct case are also computed. Together, these computations provide for a –complete CFD comparison of the duct effects. Also, the Taguchi design of the experiment method is applied to investigate three parameters (angle of attack, trailing edge radius, and chord length) of the duct. Finally, the main dimensions are obtained, and the thrust and torque coefficients are presented and discussed for one blade and whole blades during one cycle. Based on the numerical results, it is indicated that good design increases efficiency by 1.67%, and a –bad design may reduce efficiency by 3.25%. Also, the effect of the WED caused to decrease the pressure pulse by 35.9% in the face side of the propeller blade.