Numerical investigations of a cavitating propeller in non-uniform inflow

The numerical predictions of the non-cavitating and cavitating flow around a marine model scale propeller, working in non-uniform inflow, are presented. The simulations are performed using commercial and open source CFD codes. The homogeneous model is used and three widespread mass transfer models, previously calibrated on a two-dimensional hydrofoil, are employed. The turbulence effect is modelled using the RANS (Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes) approach. In addition, the more advanced SAS (Scale Adaptive Simulation) method is briefly evaluated in the case of marine propeller. The overall numerical results compare well with the experimental data. The three different calibrated mass transfer models guarantee similar accuracy.