Literature survey on boundary element methods for the efficient simulation of ship propellers in CFD codes

The objective of this report is to give an overview of the Boundary Element Method (BEM) for the efficient simulation of ship propellers in Reynolds‐Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. In the first chapter, first the background of the BEM is given. This is followed with a short discussion about methods to determine the correct shape of the vortical propeller wake. Methods to adapt the BEM to include an estimate of viscous effects on the blades are also discussed. After this, the Isogeometric Boundary Element Method (IgBEM) is discussed. The first chapter finishes with an overview of the literature related to coupling BEM with CFD codes. In the second chapter, an overview of existing commercial, research and open‐source BEM software is given. This report does not pretend to give a complete overview of all literature available on the subject of panel methods and software that implements the methods, but does try to list some of the more relevant references. In the third chapter, a summary is given and a discussion is held about possibilities for future research.

Publication year:2020

Keywords:Potential code, Isogeometric analysis, Ship propeller, Boundary element method