Our CFD & Advanced Analysis team have recently used MSC software, scFlow, to analyse a podded propulsor. These propulsors are commonly used for marine propulsion and manoeuvring of vessels. The team has used a rotating mesh, imposing a low rotational speed to capture the movement of the blades and the subsequent entrainment of the surrounding fluid.

CFD and Advanced Analysis divisional head, Martha Cooper, is very pleased with the advanced CFD skills shown here by the team, who are looking forward to assessing further interesting flow problems for our clients.

The plots shown in the below video show pressures across the propulsor surface, velocity vectors on a cross-sectional plane, and an iso-surface of the second invariant of velocity gradient tensor, a measure of turbulence.