CFD-DEM-MBD Coupling to Study Ice Impacts on Propellers in Arctic Regions

The blockage effect of an ice mass located close to a rotating propeller is simulated by coupling an Eulerian CFD solver and a Lagrangian Discrete Element Method (DEM) solver. The DEM solver models the ice mass as a collection of particles, located near the propeller. This Eulerian-Lagrangian solver is also coupled to a Multi Body Dynamic (MBD) solver to handle propeller dynamics. The simulation is performed for advance coefficients of J=0.4 and J=0.8. In order to evaluate the capabilities of the solver, the resultant loads including hydrodynamic forces and moments acting on the propeller as well as fluid flow characteristics are compared to those for another case with the same setup, but simulated using a purely Eulerian solver where the ice mass is considered as a no-slip boundary in the simulation. It is shown that the EulerianLagrangian solver is capable of predicting the increase of the pressure values on the pressure side due to the presence of ice block. Moreover, the amount of the pressure/thrust increase is in agreement with those expected by the Eulerian solver. The local flow studies reveal that the CFDDEM solver is also capable of discerning the velocity and pressure fluctuations in the flow field.