Analysis of Marine Propeller using

ANSYS WORK BENCH

Abstract - Propellers produce thrust through the production of lift by their rotating blades.
Propeller hydrodynamics is therefore part of the broader field of lifting-surface theory, which
includes such varied applications as aircraft, hydrofoil boats, ship rudders, and sailboat keels. Air
and water propellers have much in common from a theoretical point of view, particularly if one’s
attention is restricted to air propellers operating at low Mach numbers (where compressibility
effects are negligible) and to water propellers operating without cavitation. The cross sections of
most lifting surfaces are also similar in appearance, being designed to produce a force at right
angles to their motion through the fluid (lift) with a minimum force parallel to their direction of
motion (drag). Conventionally a propeller surface representation is generated by fitting a B-spline
surface through a collection of given propeller blade sections using SOLIDWORKS. And analysis is
done on different material in ANSYS 16 WORKBENCH and forces are calculated.

Keywords: Blades, Propeller, modeling, design, Thrust

I. INTRODUCTION

A propeller is a type of fan that converts rotational motion into thrust by means of power. To maximize the
efficiency of the engines, propellers are always rotate at constant velocities. The most common marine propellers are
designed to reduce the noise such as three or four bladed marine propellers. The boss is the central part of a
propeller to which the blades are mounted. Fiber Reinforced Plastics are widely used in the manufacturing of
different structures like radomes, wingtips, stabilizer tips, antenna covers, flight controls including the marine
propellers. The hydrodynamic parts of the design of composite marine propellers have pulled in consideration in
light of fact that they are important in anticipating the deflections and execution of the propeller blade. Fibre
Reinforced Plastic has a high strength to weight ratio and is resistant to mildew and corrosion. As it is easy to
fabricate, it is possible to manufacture the other parts of the marine [Link] is a sandwich type material made
up of two outer facing and a central layer. If the central layer which consists of a carbon then it is called Carbon
Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP).

II. DESIGN PARAMETERS:

We consider a propeller consisting of K identical, symmetrically arranged blades attached to a hub that is rotating at
constant angular velocity ~o about the x-axis. The hub is either idealized as an axisymmetric body as shown or
ignored completely. The geometry of the blades and hub is prescribed in a Cartesian coordinate system rotating with
the propeller. The y-axis is chosen to pass through the mid-chord of the root section of one blade, which we
designate the key blade. The z-axis completes the right handed system. An equivalent cylindrical coordinate system
in which is the radial coordinate and 0 = 0 on the y-axis is also used here. [Link]/aronline Annual
Reviews. Fluid Mechanics of MARINE PROPELLERS 375 The blade is formed starting with a mid-chord line
defined parametrically by the radial distribution of skew angle 0m(r) and rake m(r). By advancing distance +½e(r)
along a helix of pitch angle cpp(r), one obtains the blade leading edge and trailing edge, respectively, and the surface
formed by the helical lines at each radius form the reference upon which the actual blade sections can be built

II. BLADE DESCRIPTION

A. Blade Tip: The maximum reach of the blade from the center of the propeller hub. It separates the leading edge
from the trailing edge.

B. Leading Edge: The part of the blade nearest the boat, which first cuts through the water. It extends from the
hub to the tip.

C. Trailing Edge: The part of the blade farthest from the boat. The edge from which the water leaves the blade. It
extends from the tip to the hub (near the diffuser ring on through-hub exhaust propellers).

D. Cup: The small curve or lip on the trailing edge of the blade, permitting the propeller to hold water better and
normally adding about 1/2" (12.7 mm) to 1" (25.4mm) of pitch.

E. Blade Face: The side of the blade facing away from the boat, known as the positive pressure side of the blade.

F. Blade Back: The side of the blade facing the boat, known as the negative pressure (or suction) side of the blade.

G. Blade Root: The point where the blade attaches to the hub

H. Inner Hub: This contains the Flo-Torq rubber hub or Flo-Torq II Delrin® Hub System. The forward end of the
inner hub is the metal surface which generally transmits the propeller thrust through the forward thrust hub to
the propeller shaft and in turn, eventually to the boat.

I. Outer Hub: For through-hub exhaust propellers. The exterior surface is in direct contact with the water. The
blades are attached to the exterior surface. Its inner surface is in contact with the exhaust passage and with the
ribs which attach the outer hub to the inner hub.

J. Ribs: For through-hub exhaust propellers. The connections between the inner and outer hub, there are usually
three ribs, occasionally two, four, or five. The ribs are usually either parallel to the propeller shaft ("straight"),
or parallel to the blades ("helical").

K. Diffuser Ring: Aids in reducing exhaust back pressure and in preventing exhaust gas from feeding back into
propeller blades.

III. Material properties :-

 Aluminum mechanical properties: Titanium alloy mechanical properties:

Young’s Modulus 7000MPa Young's modulus  120 GPa,

Poisson ratio 0.34 tensile strength 1000 MPa.
Mass density 2700 gm/cc density 4420 kg/m3, 
Damping coefficient 0.03

Properties of Aluminum: properties of titanium alloy:

 Specific gravity  High tensile strength
 Tensile strength and modulus  High resistance
 Compressive strength and modulus  High strength-to-weight ratio
 Damping  Low weight
 Electrical and thermal conductivities  Low thermal expansion
 High cost

Material Density (kg/m3) Young modulus (MPa) Poisons ratio

Al metal matrix 2700 7.8E10 0.32

Ti alloy 4620 9.6E10 0.36

IV. LITERATURE REVIEW

Dunna Sridhar [2010] [1] conducted propeller open water test frictional resistance and propulsion performance using
CFD techniques. For geometric modeling and mesh generation SOLIDWORKS is used for four bladed propellers at
a thrust force of 346Kn at 30 rps. The computational results are compared with the existing experimental data. Dr. Y
.SeetharamaRao [2012] [2] studied stress analysis of composite propeller to design a propeller with aluminum to
analyze its strength and deformation using ANSYS software. Focused on these materials to reduce the stress levels:
Experimental values are compared with the theoretical values. The comparison analysis of metallic and composite
propeller was made for maximum deflection and normal stresses. [Link] Reddy [2012] [3] the comparison had
made for analysis of metallic and composite propeller for the natural frequencies. The model analysis is done on
both the materials using ANSYS software. By the results of study to overcome the resonance phenomenon
composite propellers are safest mode compared to aluminum. [Link] [2013] [4] design and analysis of a
surface propeller using ANSYS. SOLIDWORKS is a 3D modeling software used to generate the blade model and
tool path on the computer. Later the model is exported to ANSYS V17 for finite analysis. The different materials
such as Aluminum and Titanium are taken. Finally its concluded that carbon material can give a better performance
with respect to static analysis. In this work the propellers are used to propeller the vehicles at its operational speed
and RPM. Propeller with conventional isotropic materials creates more noise and vibrations in its rotation. It is
undesirable in stealth point of view. To reduce these parameters and also the increase the need for light weight
structural elements with acoustic insulation has led to use of Fiber Reinforced multi layered composite propeller.
The dynamic analyses are carried out on Aluminum and titanium alloy. Compare the results of experimentally and
theoretically with propeller and composite propeller. The modeling is developed in SOLIDWORKS.

V. DESIGN OF MARINE PROPELLER IN SOLIDWORKS

Modeling of the propeller is done using SOLID WORKS. In order to model the blade, it is necessary to have
sections of the propeller at various radii. These sections are drawn and rotated through their respective pitch angles.
Then all rotated sections are projected onto right circular cylinders of respective radii.
 Importing blade from SOLIDWORKS

Applying pressure on surface blade

VI. MESH GENERATION

The solid model of the marine propeller blade along with the hub is imported to ANSYS WORK BENCH. The solid
mesh is generated with the fine number of nodes and elements. The boundary conditions are applied to the meshed
model. The contact surfaces between hub and shaft is fixed in all degrees of freedom. The Tetrahedral meshes are
generated because the composite materials are used for the analysis. The thrust force of 2102.1 N is uniformly
distributed on face side of blade and since it is the maximum loading condition on each blade. The number of nodes
are generated are 13455 and the number of elements are generated are 13464

Applying mesh on surface blade

Total Deformation
Equivalent Elastic Strain Max 0.00019935
Equivalent Elastic Strain Min 5.6696e-7

EQUIVALENT STRESS

Equivalent Stress Max 3.9735e7

Equivalent Stress Min 89448
 ALUMINUM PRINCIPAL STRESS

Maximum Principal Stress Max 3.97517e7

Maximum Principal Stress Min -1.2948e6

VII. RESULTS

STATIC ANALYSIS

Material Stress (MPA) Deformation (mm) Strain Mass (kg)

Titanium alloy 229.33 5.45564 0.0023901 1.8447
Aluminum alloy 230.09 6.9229 0.0029511 1.0781

VIII. REFERENCES

1. Y. Hara et al, “performance evaluation of composite marine propeller for fishing boat by fluid structure interaction analysis” composite
structure, International conference on composite materials, Japan2010.
2. Dunna Sridhar et al, “ Frictional resistance calculation on a ship using CFD”, computer applications, International journal on computer
applications, Vol 11-No. 5, December 2010
3. Mohammed Ahamed Khan, “Design and dynamic analysis on composite propeller of ship using FEA” , International journal of advanced
trends in computer science and engineering”, Vol. 2 – No. 1, January 2013.
4. M. Vidya Sagar et al, “Static and dynamic analysis of composite propeller of ship using FEA”, Vol. 2, July 2013.
5. [Link] et al, “Modeling and Analysis of propeller blade for its strength”, International journal of engineering research and technology”, Vol.
3, February 20
6. D. Gopaiah et al, “Design and Model analysis of composite propeller using ANSYS”, Vol.4, November 2014.
[Link], D.w, “The Speed and Power and Ships”,Washington, 1933
[Link], “Strength Of Propellers”, reads in London at a meeting of the royal intuition of naval architects on dec1.1960,pp 139-16
[Link] sonntvedt, “Propeller Blade Stresses, Application Of Finite Element Methods” computers and structures,vol.4,pp193-2044) Chang-sup
lee, yong-jik kim,gun-do kim and insik nho.“Case Study On The Structural Failure Of Marine Propeller Blades”
[Link], visitor and [Link]. “Strength Of Propeller Blades-A Numerical Approach”, the socity of naval architects and marine
engineers, may 24-25,1978,pp20-1-21-3.
[Link], visitor, lips B.V.,Drunen. “Hub- Blade Interaction In Propeller Strength”, the socity of naval architects and marine enginers,
may 24-25,1978,pp19-1-19-14
[Link] [Link] and John L Crigler. “Propeller analysisfrom experimental data” report No.712, pp 147-164.
IX. CONCLUSION

 Propeller creates a high pressure and low pressure volume which helps vessels to move in forward
direction.
 Design of propeller blade plays an important role. So we carefully designed propeller blades with required
dimensions using CAD TOOL SOFTWARE namely SOLIDWORKS which has many advanced tools
which helps for accurate design
 Wireframe and surface design workbench is employed from CATIA V5 R20 which has many single axis
tools which is used for design.
 Excluding material tools are employed from part design workbench.
 STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS is done in ANSYS 16 WORKBENCH under required boundary condition
and followed by CFD ANALYSIS is done in fluent workbench.
 We get maximum 1.108e3 velocity which is a pretty good velocity and we get pressure difference of
3.561e8 by which there is a large pressure difference when compared to its minimum pressure values.
Simulation, static analysis and flow analysis on marine propeller is performed by using ANSYS:-
 Static analysis is performed by selecting three different materials i.e. one generally used Titanium alloy and
remaining two advance composite materials alloy such as Aluminum Metal matrix(KS1275).
 Static analysis result values i.e.: stress, strain and deformation because of applied load due to impact of ice
berg on blade is noted and tabulated.
 Compare to material Alloy steel is showing least deformation compare to Titanium alloy but the weight
ratio of Alloy steel is more than Titanium alloy and Titanium alloy showing least max stress value compare
to Alloy steel.
 As compare to material all three materials showing nearly same stress value on same boundary condition
and applied load.
 But composite materials are showing less weight ratio than Titanium alloy.
 Due to least weight to strength ratio compare to generally used Titanium alloy even which is economically
high cost we can prefer such advance composite material too which has properties like good strength ,least
weight to strength ratio , and economically less cost too.