The Research Of Optimization Design Of Propeller Performance Based On Genetic Algorithm

The mechanism in fluid dynamics is similar between the 2-D hydrofoil and the propeller, and the performance of propeller is always affected by the shape of the propeller profiles in some ways. Thus, this paper starts with the research of the performance of the propeller shapes, and has optimization by Genetic Algorithm and panel method. After that, the optimization is used in the propeller shapes to improve the performance of propeller in open water.Firstly this paper calculates the performance of 2-D hydrofoil by panel method distributed by vortexes and FLUENT respectively, and analyzes its characteristic, especially its characteristic of lift and drag. Based on that, this paper designs the optimization of NACA0012 by GA and pane method distributed by vortexes, and compares and analyzes the shapes and performances between the original hydrofoil and the optimized hydrofoil.Secondly this paper calculates the performance of propeller in open water by CFD. Above all this paper models the propeller in 3D by the software UG, then imports the model of the flow field into ICEM-CFD for gridding, and lastly calculates the performance of propeller in open water by FLUENT, and prepares for the optimization of propeller.Lastly this paper uses the optimization model of 2-D hydrofoil into the propeller profiles, and optimizes the profiles near the root for a better performance of the ratio of lift and drag. After that a new series of profiles will be grouped by the optimized profiles and the other original profile by interpolation, and these profiles will be modeled to a new propeller. Based on that, this paper calculates the performance of the new propeller by FLUENT, and compared with the original propeller to validate the method that can be effective in the optimization of propeller.Of course this paper just optimizes the performance of propeller in open water by optimizing the performance of the profiles, but ignores the influence between the profiles and the blades, and calculates the coefficient of drag by empirical formula. So these points will be somewhere can be improved in future. And in the same time the optimization ignores the other performance of propeller, and it will induce that the other performance of propeller can't meet the case in engineer. So in future the optimization of the propeller in several subjects will be a great area for research, and doing a deeper research in this area will be worth.