Numerical Investigation of Energy Saving Device Effects on Ships With Propeller-Hull Interactions

Energy saving devices (ESD) such as propeller ducts, pre-swirl stators, pre-nozzles, etc have been explored as a more economic and reliable approach to reduce energy consumption for both in-operation and newly design ships over the past decades. Those energy saving devices work in the principle of reducing ship resistance and improving propulsion efficiency as well as hull-propeller interactions. Potential saving from various types of ESD have been reported in literature from the range of 3–9% [1] for propulsion efficiency dependent on different measures. Deployment of those devices on actual full-scale ships has been limited over the past years. One of the key obstacles in application of ESD is the lack of confidence in measuring its efficiency on full-scale ships in actual operational conditions. Advances in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has provided an alternative approach from model scale test to better understand uncertainties in prediction of ESD efficiency in full-scale ship operations [Shin et al, 2013]. In this work a high fidelity CFD model is presented for investigation effects of pre-nozzles on propulsion efficiency and ship resistance. The model is based on the Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes (RANS) solver with different turbulent models including a hybrid detached eddy simulation (DES) approach for predictions of complex near body flow features as well as in the wake regions from hull and propeller. The model is validated with model test for both towing and self-propulsion conditions. Finally a study of pre-nozzle effects on propeller efficiency as well as hull-propeller interaction is presented and compared with available experimental data (Tokyo 2015 Workshop). The current work constitutes a fundamental approach towards designing more efficient ESD for a specific hull form and propeller.