Numerical Study on the Correlation Between Underwater Radiated Noise and Wake Evolution of a Rim-Driven Thruster

In this investigation, a hybrid approach integrating the IDDES turbulence model and FW-H is employed to forecast the hydroacoustic of the rim-driven thruster (RDT) under non-cavitation and uniform flow conditions at varying loading conditions (J = 0.3 and J = 0.6). It is revealed that the quadrupole term contribution in the P-FWH method significantly affects the monopole term in the low-frequency region, while it mainly affects the dipole term in the high-frequency region. Specifically, the overall sound pressure levels (SPL) of the RDT using the P-FWH method are 2.27 dB, 10.03 dB, and 16.73 dB at the receiving points from R1 to R3 under the heavy-loaded condition, while they increase by 0.67 dB at R1, and decrease by 14.93 dB at R2, and 22.20 dB at R3, for the light-loaded condition. The study also utilizes the pressure-time derivatives to visualize the numerical noise and to pinpoint the dynamics of the vortex cores, and the optimization of the grid design can significantly reduce the numerical noise. The computational accuracy of the P-FWH method can meet the noise requirements for the preliminary design of rim-driven thrusters.