A ship propeller design methodology of multi-objective optimization considering fluid–structure interaction

This paper presents a multi-objective optimization methodology that applies the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II(NSGA-II) to propeller design, and realizes Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) weak-coupling based on Panel Method (PM) and the Finite Element Method (FEM). The FSI iterative process and the convergent pressure coefficient distribution and pressure fluctuation of HSP (a propeller installed on a Japanese bulk freighter – Seiun-Maru) are numerical calculated. The FSI results turn out to have higher precision than those without FSI. The appropriate optimization parameters are chosen after studying five cases. The Sobol method, a global Sensitivity Analysis (SA) algorithm, is used to quantify the dependence of objectives and constraints on the input parameters. In the multi-objective optimization methodology, efficiency, unsteady force, and mass are chosen as optimum objectives under certain constraints. Effectiveness and robustness of the methodology are validated by running the program starting from four different random values, which all improve the objectives and converge to the similar results. The proposed multi-objective optimization methodology could be a promising tool for propeller design to help improve design efficiency and ability in the future