Enhancing energy efficiency of ship propulsion systems through tubercle assisted propellers : a full-scale CFD study

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Tacar Ilter, Zeynep and Tadros, Mina and Ilter, Y. Kaan and Xu, Yunxin and Shi, Weichao; (2025) Enhancing energy efficiency of ship propulsion systems through tubercle assisted propellers : a full-scale CFD study. In: Transport Transitions: Advancing Sustainable and Inclusive Mobility. Lecture Notes in Mobility . Springer, pp. 414-419. ISBN 978-3-031-89444-2 (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-89444-2_60)

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Abstract

This paper investigates the potential of integrating biomimetically inspired tubercles into ship propulsion systems, specifically ducted propellers, to improve energy efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of maritime transportation. The current study aims to assess the impact of tubercle integration in ducted propellers for analysing the self-propulsion of full-scale ships. First, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models and empirical formulas implemented in NavCad are used to compute the ship resistance, showing good agreement in the calculated results. Then, the initial propeller geometry is optimised, considering propeller efficiency and safety aspects related to cavitation and noise limitations. By applying the concept of tubercle-assisted propellers (TAP), CFD simulations are conducted to analyse the self-propulsion performance of a ship equipped with a tubercle-adapted propeller. The results are compared with previous tubercle studies to discuss the effect of tubercles on self-propulsion performance.

ORCID iDs

Tacar Ilter, Zeynep ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5137-2830, Tadros, Mina ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9065-3803, Ilter, Y. Kaan ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6613-2944, Xu, Yunxin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7254-2333 and Shi, Weichao ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9730-7313;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)