Experimental study on cavitation behavior of propellers in the uniform flow and in the wake field

Cavitation behavior of fully submerged propellers is an important issue in the marine engineering field. Cavitation tunnel is usually used for studying hydrodynamic performances and cavitation behavior of a propeller. In the present study, the cavitation behavior of the DTMB P4119 propeller was studied both in a uniform flow and in the wake field of a specific vessel. Considering the dimensions of the test section of K23 cavitation tunnel of Sharif University of Technology and related blockage effects, the propeller was scaled so that the model was 0.195 (m) in diameter. A wake screen was used to generate the desired wake field, which itself was primarily determined by CFD simulations around a specific stern geometry. The cavitation behavior of DTMB P4119 in different cavitation numbers and advance ratios was observed to determine the bucket diagram of this propeller to define the safe operational zone regarding the occurrence of cavitation phenomenon. Studying the cavitation phenomenon is important, since it contributes in the separation occurrence and noise propagation and is a major reason of blade erosion. It should be noted that the procedure explained in this study can be applied for any submerged propeller. These experimental results can be used as a reference for validation in the future numerical simulations.