A SURFACE PANEL METHOD FOR THE HYDRODYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF DUCTED PROPELLERS

The development of a panel method suitable for the analysis of ducted propellers is presented. The method is first applied to the problem of the two-dimensional hydrofoil, the propeller with hub and the axisymmetric duct in uniform flow. Some comparisons are made with exact solutions and with other panel codes. The difficulties associated with the modeling of ducted propeller flows are discussed. Convergence of the method for a typical ducted propeller is shown. The results include overall forces on the propeller and the duct, circulation distributions, and chordwise pressure distributions on the duct at different positions between blades.