Numerical Technique to Analyze the Flow Characteristics of a Propeller Using Immersed Boundary Lattice Boltzmann Method

The thrust force created by a propeller depends on the incoming flow velocity and the rotational velocity of the propeller. The performance of the propeller can be described by dimensionless variables, advanced ratio, thrust coefficient, and power coefficient. This study included the application of the immersed boundary lattice Boltzmann method (IBLBM) with the stereo lithography (STL) file of the rotating object for performance analysis. The immersed boundary method included the addition of the external force term to the LB equation defined by the velocity difference between the lattice points of the propeller and the grid points in the domain. The flow by rotating a 4-blade propeller was simulated with various Reynolds numbers (Re) (including 100, 500 and 1000), with advanced ratios in the range of 0.2~1.4 to verify the suggested method. The typical tendency of the thrust efficiency of the propeller was obtained from the simulation results of different advanced ratios. It was also necessary to keep the maximum mesh size ratio of the propeller surface to a grid size below 3. Additionally, a sufficient length of the downstream region in the domain was maintained to ensure the numerical stability of the higher Re and advanced ratio flow.