Numéro : 2804 - Year : 2024
Ship propulsion: integration of cfd in the design process
Romain HURET, Florent SAINCLAIR, Naval Group – Hydrodynamics team – Lorient (France)
Vincent TISSOT, Camille YVIN, Sirehna – Modelling and Simulation in Hydrodynamics – Bouguenais (France)
Efficient propulsion is a major objective among the ship's overall performance, for it has a direct impact on maximum speed and fuel consumption. This field of ship design resides at the intersection of propulsion system design, naval architecture, and hydrodynamics. Propulsion specialists deal with the engine and its components all the way to the propeller. Naval architects integrate the propulsion systems into the propulsion and stability balances, and general arrangement. The hydrodynamics specialist designs the hull and propeller, aiming at minimizing resistance and enhancing efficiency with respect to architectural constraints.
The integration of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) into the workflow of propulsive studies began more than 10 years ago. The numerical results have been updated through extensive research and development by validating simulations against empirical data obtained from model test and sea trials. This methodology provides a reliable tool with sufficient level of accuracy to estimate the propulsive performance before building and sea trials of the ship.
This article describes the steps involved in the design and verification of propulsion performance. Emphasis is placed on the use of CFD methods, to present their level of advancement and how they can be integrated into the process to enable better system integration and improved propulsive performance of ships.
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