Numerical Investigation of the Open-Water Hydrodynamic Characteristics of the INSEAN E779A Marine Propeller

Abstract

This paper presents a three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) investigation of the hydrodynamic performance of the INSEAN E779A marine propeller under open water conditions. The simulations were performed by solving the incompressible Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations using the finite volume method, while the propeller rotation was modeled using the Moving Reference Frame (MRF) approach. The standard $\mathrm{k}-\varepsilon$ turbulence model was employed to ensure a good compromise between numerical stability, computational cost, and prediction accuracy for high Reynolds number flows. The propeller thrust and torque are computed and expressed in terms of the nondimensional coefficients $K_{T}$ and $K_{Q}$, while the open-water efficiency is evaluated for selected operating conditions. Numerical results are validated against available experimental open-water measurements for two advance ratios. Overall, the study confirms the capability of the adopted CFD framework to provide reliable estimates of the open-water propulsive characteristics of the INSEAN E779A propeller and supports its application for preliminary propeller performance evaluation and design analysis.