Analysis of the Cavitating Flow Around the Horn-type Rudder in the Race of a Propeller

Abstract

This paper describes numerical methods by a mixed formulation of the boundary value problem (BVP) for the prediction of the cavitating flow around the horn-type rudder working behind a propeller. The blade BVP is treated by the classical vortex lattice method, whereas the rudder BVP is solved by the surface panel method. The three-dimensional flow around the rudder and the propeller is computed simultaneously, considering the interactions between them. A modified kinematic boundary condition is applied to predict the mean velocity and flow volume through gap flow region of the horn-type rudder. To validate the numerical scheme, an experiment is performed in large cavitation tunnel. The surface pressure distributions and cavity patterns on the horn-type rudder are investigated and compared with computational results, showing good agreement with measured results.