Advanced Materials Research Vols.

1030-1032 (2014) pp 1201-1205 Submitted: 2014-05-27

© (2014) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland Accepted: 2014-07-10
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.1030-1032.1201 Online: 2014-09-22

Modal analysis of marine propeller submerged in fluid

Ren Hong1, a, Li Fan-chun1, b and Zhao Tian-yu1, c

1
Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China
a b c
dlmurh@126.com, Lee_fc@126.com, 419608628@qq.com

Keywords: marine propeller; modal analysis; fluid-structure interaction; FEA

Abstract. The present work is aimed to free vibration characteristics of marine propeller in fluid, and
analyze the influence of fluid inertial effect on propeller. The fully coupled three dimensional finite
element method is applied, and the commercial finite element code, ANSYS WORKBENCH, has been
used to perform modal analysis for both wet and dry configurations via fluid-structure interaction
APDL commands for secondary development. On this basis, analyze a marine propeller in air and in
fluid with finite element analysis, then the differences of natural vibration frequencies and vibration
modes of the propeller for different boundary conditions are discussed. In addition, the natural
frequencies curves are presented. Results show that the natural frequencies of propeller in fluid are
significantly lower than those in air, the fluid inertia effect also has some influences on vibration
mode.

Introduction
It is well known that the force situations of propeller are very complex during working process.
The resonance occurs when the excitation frequency approaches the natural frequency of propeller.
Structure may produce severe fatigue damage when operating for a long time under resonance. The
free vibration characteristics of propeller in fluid and in air are quite different because of fluid inertial
effect. To prevent or control harmful effect of resonance, the establishment of fluid-structure coupling
control equation for modal analysis of propeller in fluid is necessary.
At present, there are mainly three kinds of methods to analyze the free vibration based on
fluid-structure interaction: analytical method, experimental modal method in fluid and numerical
analysis method. Numerical analysis method can abstract practical engineering problems to
corresponding physical model, establish full-scale model of propeller, and simulate fluid-structure
coupling vibration. So it is the focus of the recent research: The free vibrational characteristics of
coupled cylindrical-coupled shells by using a power series solution and a wave solution are discussed
by Caresta [1]. The virtual mass matrix of fluid is derived by solving the boundary-value problem
related to the fluid motion using elliptical coordinates by Kwak [2]. An accelerated pseudo symmetric
subspace iteration method is presented by Arjmandi [3]. The solution of free vibrations of a shell of
revolution with an arbitrary meridian partially filled with fluid is obtained by coupling FEM and BEM
by Ventsel [4].
The main objective of this paper is to present a detailed study of free vibration of marine propeller
submerged in fluid. The solution of the modal analysis is obtained by fluid-structure interaction finite
element method. The natural frequencies are calculated, and the mode shapes are presented. The
numerical solutions are in good coincidence with the results of references [5], the feasibility and
reliability of numerical simulation in the paper are proved. The research offers reference for the
design for actual project designing.

The fluid-structure coupling theory [6]

The governing finite element formulation of a dynamic problem for the structure can be written as
follow:

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1202 Materials, Transportation and Environmental Engineering II

{} {}
 Ms  U

+ Cs  U
+  Ks  {U} = {F }
. (1)

Where [Ms] is mass matrix of propeller, [Cs] is damping matrix of propeller, [Ks] is stiffness
matrix of propeller, {U} is nodal displacement vector, {F} is applied load vector.
The interaction of the fluid and the structure at a mesh interface causes the acoustic pressure to
exert a force applied to the structure and the structural motions produce an effective “fluid load.” The
fluid pressure load acting at the interface is added to equation of motion, then the governing finite
element matrix equations then become:

{}
 Ms  U

+  Ks  {U} = {Fs } + R {P}
. (2)
T
{}
 Mf  P

+  Kf  {P} = {Ff }−ρ 0
R {U

} . (3)

Combining the two equations into a single equation produces the following:

 Ms 0  U

  Ks −R U   Fs 
  +    =  
 ρ0R
T
Mf  P

  0 Kf  P  Ff  . (4)
Where [Mf] is mass matrix of fluid, [Kf] is stiffness matrix of fluid, [R] is fluid-structure coupling
matrix that represents the effective surface area associated with each node on the fluid-structure
interface. It converts fluid pressure on the interface to the load of structure, [P] is acoustic pressure,
[Fs] is the load of structure, [Ff] is the load of fluid pressure.

Simulation conditions
Geometry and grids. Based on the data points on different cylindrical sections of a marine
propeller, the coordinate transform method is used to establish the three-dimension model of the
propeller [7]. In order to ensure the accuracy, the radius of fluid domain should be no less than five
times of the radius of propeller to substitute unlimited fluid domain [8]. Fig. 1 shows the calculation
domain around the propeller. Table 1 shows main parameters of the propeller. The shape of marine
propeller blade is complex. In order to improve results of numerical stimulation, the unstructured
triangular mesh is utilized here and the size of mesh is reduced, as shown in Fig. 2

Fig.1 Calculation domain around the propeller Fig. 2 Mesh of propeller

Table 1 Main parameters of propeller
Diameter Expanded Blades Speeds of Density Young's Poisson's
area ratio number rotation modulus ratio
5.6 [m] 0.5 4 124 [rpm] 7400 [kg/m3] 124 [GPa] 0.33
 Advanced Materials Research Vols. 1030-1032 1203

Boundary conditions. The fluid domain around propeller is defined as Acoustic Body. The
density of acoustic element and the speed of sound are assumed as 1000 Kg/m3, and 1400 m/s,
respectively. The Acoustic FSI interface is modeled by coupling an acoustic fluid domain to the
surface of propeller. The key optional of the interface element is KEYOPT (2) =0, which enforce the
displacement and pressure compatibility conditions at the fluid-structure interface. In order to
substitute unlimited fluid domain, the size of fluid domain is much larger than the propeller, and the
degree of freedom (DOF) of pressure of each nodes on boundary is zero (PRES)=0, so that an
outgoing pressure wave reaching the boundary of the model is “absorbed” with minimal reflections
back into the fluid domain. Fixed support on the propeller shaft and frictionless support on the shaft
hole is imposed. Due to the unsymmetrical stiffness and mass matrices, the eigenvalues should be
extracted via the unsymmetrical method. The first 15 natural frequency is extracted.
Commands.
/prep7 allsel,all
allsel,all cmsel,s,interface,
et,10,fluid220 esln,r
et,11,fluid221 esel,r,ename,,fluid220
et,20,fluid220 emodif,all,type,10,
keyopt,20,2,1 allsel,all
et,21,fluid221 cmsel,s,interface,
keyopt,21,2,1 esln,r
mp,dens,10,1000 esel,r,ename,,fluid221
mp,sonc,10,1400 emodif,all,type,11,
cmsel,s,fluid, allsel,all
emodif,all,mat,10, finish
esel,r,ename,,solid186 /solu
emodif,all,type,20, modopt,unsym,15,
allsel,all sf,interface,fsi
cmsel,s,fluid, d,boundary,pres,0
esel,r,ename,,solid187 allsel,all
emodif,all,type,21,

Results and discussion

The first 15 natural frequencies is extracted, as shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Comparison of first 15 natural frequencies for propeller [Hz]

Order 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
In air [Hz] 30.911 31.071 31.072 31.076 52.848 54.965 54.97 55.127
In fluid [Hz] 18.659 18.756 18.763 18.793 35.7 36.188 36.189 36.259
Error [%] 39.64 39.64 39.61 39.53 32.45 34.16 34.14 34.23
Order 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
In air [Hz] 79.342 87.933 87.94 88.636 112.9 119.12 119.12
In fluid [Hz] 61.186 63.787 63.81 64.001 68.009 82.417 88.459
Error [%] 22.88 27.45 27.43 27.79 39.76 30.81 25.74

The computational data presented in Table 2 indicate that the natural frequencies of propeller in
fluid are significantly lower than those in air because of fluid inertial effect. The relative error for two
1204 Materials, Transportation and Environmental Engineering II

sets of the boundary conditions is between 23% and 40%. The relative error of each order is different,
presents the characteristic of nonlinear. The relative error will descend with natural frequency
increasing. This shows that as the frequency increase, the fluid inertial effect reduce. Fig. 3 shows
natural frequencies curves of propeller in air and in fluid, respectively.

Fig. 3 The natural frequencies curves of propeller in air and in fluid

The first and fifth mode shapes are shown as Fig. 4 and Fig. 5, respectively. The results show that
mode shapes for both wet and dry configurations are very similar.

（a）In air （b）In fluid （a）In air （b）In fluid

Fig. 4 The first mode shape of propeller Fig. 5 The fifth mode shape of propeller

The 6th and the 7th mode shapes are shown as Fig. 6. The 6th mode shape in air and the 7th mode
shape in fluid are the same, and vice versa, the 6th mode shape in fluid and the 7th mode shape in air
are the same. The order of six and seven is reversed. Again, the order of ten and eleven are reversed,
there is no need to enumerate all the discussions here. As the frequency increase, the difference of
mode shapes gradually clear.

（a）The 7th mode in air （b）The 6th mode in fluid （a）The 6th mode in air （b）The 7th mode in fluid
Fig. 6 The 6th and the 7th mode shapes of propeller

Conclusion
In this paper, we present the results of numerical computations, which have been done to
investigate the dynamic behavior of propeller in air and in fluid. The numerical results have shown
 Advanced Materials Research Vols. 1030-1032 1205

that the natural frequencies of propeller in fluid are significantly lower than those in air. The relative
error will descend with natural frequency increasing, which shows that the fluid inertia effect might
be weaken with the increase of frequency. Mode shapes of propeller in air and in fluid are very similar
in the low order. As the frequency increase, the difference of mode shapes is increasingly obvious.
The natural frequencies and vibrational modes are obtained conveniently by finite element
analysis, and the problem of modal analysis in fluid is solved well. Such a fluid-structure coupling
modal analysis of propeller offers references for the design of similar submerged structure, such as
offshore platform, submarine and offshore pipeline, etc. The research provides scientific basis for
evaluating the dynamic characteristics of propeller, diagnosing and predicting the fatigue failure. It
can be easily used for practical engineering design directly.

Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
(3132014318).

References
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[2] M.K. Kwak, D.H. Yang: Journal of Fluids and Structures Vol.40 (2013), p. 25
[3] S.A. Arjmandi, V. Lotfi: Scientia Iranica Vol. 18 (2011), p. 1159
[4] E.S. Ventsel, V. Naumenko, E. Strelnikova, et al: Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements
Vol. 34 (2010), p. 856
[5] X.X. HUANG, C. VALERO, E. EGUSQUIZA, et al: Computers&Fluids Vol. 71 (2013), p. 54
[6] ANSYS. Inc., in: Release notes, volume of Fluids Analysis Guide, chapter 2.1.7, USA (2013)
[7] L.H. Wu, L.B. Dong, W.H. Xu: Journal of Dalian Maritime University Vol. 37 (2011), p. 17
[8] F. Sun, J. Wang, X.B. Ji, et al: SHIP&BOAT Vol. 24 (2013), p. 21
Materials, Transportation and Environmental Engineering II
10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.1030-1032

Modal Analysis of Marine Propeller Submerged in Fluid

10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.1030-1032.1201

DOI References
[1] M. Carset, N.J. Kessissoglou: Journal of Sound and Vibration Vol. 329 (2010), p.733.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsv.2009.10.003
[2] M.K. Kwak, D.H. Yang: Journal of Fluids and Structures Vol. 40 (2013), p.25.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jfluidstructs.2013.03.005
[3] S.A. Arjmandi, V. Lotfi: Scientia Iranica Vol. 18 (2011), p.1159.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scient.2011.09.011
[4] E.S. Ventsel, V. Naumenko, E. Strelnikova, et al: Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements Vol. 34
(2010), p.856.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enganabound.2010.05.004