Simulation of cavitation and surface erosion on marine propellers

Cavitation is the formation of vapor pockets in a liquid due to a pressure drop or an increase in speed. Cavitation nuisance can be disastrous for mechanical components, and therefore needs to be controlled from an early design stage. However, predicting cavitation dynamics using CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and therefore the performance of different designs in cavitating flow, can be very challenging and computationally expensive. In this study, we make an attempt to understand the mechanisms of cavitation erosion and predict the erosion risk on the blades of marine propellers operating in behind condition. Cavitation erosion is a result of extreme pressure loads taking place at the final stage of the collapse, and the prediction of those requires very small scales in time and space. For engineering applications, it is extremely costly to resolve such small scales, and therefore additional modeling is required to reduce the computational cost....Ship Hydromechanics and Structure