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A fully automated optimization process is provided for the design of ducted propellers under open water conditions, including 3D geometry modeling, meshing, optimization algorithm and CFD analysis techniques. The developed process allows the direct integration of a RANSE solver in the design stage. A practical ducted propeller design case study is carried out for validation. Numerical simulations and open water tests are fulfilled and proved that the optimum ducted propeller improves hydrodynamic performance as predicted.

This paper investigates the open water performance of the Ka-series propellers at various pitch and expanded area ratios in combination with the 19A duct by employing the panel method panMARE and the RANSE code ANSYS-CFX. An efficient method, Caly, is developed in order to generate the 3D-geometry and the surface numerical grid of the ducted propellers. Caly can be coupled with ANSYS-TurboGrid to automatically produce 3D-grids for the RANSE solver. The numerical results are compared with published experimental data and the flow details are concluded and compared. The influences that the grid resolution, the panel arrangements of duct and blade, and the flow in gap between inside wall of the duct and blade tip on the numerical results are studied. Grids verification, turbulence model dependency analysis and Reynolds number scantling are also discussed.