Influence of Blade Thickness on Unsteady Propeller Forces

Unsteady CFD method based on realizable k-epsilon model is used for predicting unsteady forces of propeller working in non-uniform inflow. CFD method was firstly validated by cases of propeller P4118 in 3-cycle and 4-cycle inflow. The influence of the little difference between experiment and CFD flow field on propeller unsteady forces was estimated by 2D unsteady method which has been proved to be correct. The results of CFD agree well with experimental data. Then several propellers with different blade thickness are simulated, the results show that, as a whole, average thrust, torque and unsteady forces decrease slightly as blade thickness increases.