The dynamics of the tip vortices shed by a tip-loaded propeller with winglets

The tip vortices shed by two marine propellers are studied, relying on large-eddy simulation, using a cylindrical grid consisting of 5 billion points. A tip-loaded design, featuring winglets at the tips of its blades, is compared against a conventional one at the design advance coefficient and a model-scale Reynolds number equal to 432 000. The tip-loaded propeller achieves improved performance, but produces also more intense tip vortices. The propeller with winglets actually generates two vortices from the tip of each blade, originating at the edge of each winglet and at the junction between the winglets and the blades. They merge at a short distance downstream, within a diameter from the propeller plane. The helical vortices originating from this merging process experience a slower instability, in comparison with the tip vortices in the wake of the conventional propeller, persisting further downstream, due to the weaker shear with the wakes shed by the following blades. The results of the simulations highlight that splitting the single tip vortex of a conventional propeller into two smaller vortices by means of winglets does not imply necessarily the generation of weaker vortices and lower negative peaks of pressure at their core: the geometry of the winglets needs to be carefully optimized to achieve this target.

Automated summary

This study investigates the tip vortices shed by two marine propellers using large-eddy simulation and a cylindrical grid with 5 billion points. It compares a tip-loaded design with winglets against a conventional one at specific operating conditions. The results show that the tip-loaded propeller achieves improved performance but also produces more intense tip vortices. These vortices originate from the edge of each winglet and the junction between the winglets and the blades and merge downstream. The simulations highlight the importance of carefully optimizing the geometry of the winglets to achieve weaker vortices and lower negative pressure peaks at their core.