Chimera Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes simulations of coupled ship and propeller flows

In the present study, a Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) method is employed in conjunction with a Chimera domain decomposition approach to provide accurate resolution of coupled ship and propeller flows. In the Chimera RANS method, body-fitted numerical grids are generated around each propeller blade to provide accurate resolution of the turbulent boundary layer, wake, and blade tip vortices. The propeller grid blocks are completely embedded in the ship stem region and allowed to rotate with respect to the ship grid. This enables us to capture the propeller-hull interactions without tedious grid reconstruction at every time step. Calculations have been performed for the DTRC 4118 propeller under both the design and off-design conditions to illustrate the capability of the chimera moving grid approach.