Viscous flow around a propeller-shaft configuration with infinite-pitch rectangular blades

A viscous-solution method is set forth for calculating incompressible propeller flowfields. An overview of the computational method is given, and some example results for both laminar and turbulent flow are presented and discussed with regard to the flow physics for the idealized geometry of a propeller-shaft configuration with infinite-pitch rectangular blades. It is shown that the flow exhibits many of the distinctive features of interest, including the development and evolution of the shaft and blade boundary layers and wakes and tip, passage, and hub vortices. Comparisons are made with results from a lifting-surface, propeller-per formance program to aid in evaluating the present method, which show that the method accurately predicts the blade loading, including viscous effects, and clearly displays the ability to resolve the viscous regions in distinction from the inviscid-flow approach.