Modeling and Analysis of Propeller Blade

Abstract:

            Fiber reinforced composites are finding widespread use in naval applications in recent times. Ship sand under water vehicles like torpedoes submarine etc., these weapons require propeller to drive the vehicle. In general propeller will be used as propulsions and it also used to develop significant thrust to propel the vehicle atits operational speed and rpm torpedoes. Which are designed for moderate and deeper depths require minimization of structural weight for increasing payload, performance/speed and operating range for that purpose Aluminum alloy casting is used for the fabrication of propeller blades. In current years the increased need for the light weight structural element with acoustic insulation, has led to use of fiber

           Reinforced multilayer composite propeller. The present work carries out the structural analysis of a CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced plastic) propeller blade which proposed to replace the Aluminum propeller blade. The propeller is subjected to an external hydrostatic pressure on either side of the blades depending on the operating depth and flow around the propeller also result in differential hydrostatic pressure between face and back surfaces of blades. The propeller blade is modeled and designed such that it can with stand the static load distribution and finding the stresses and deflections for both aluminum and carbon fiber reinforced plastic materials. This work basically deals with the modeling and design analysis of the propeller blade of a torpedo for its strength. A propeller is complex 3D model geometry. This requires high end modeling CATIA software is used for generating the blade model. This report consists of brief details about Fiber Reinforced Plastic Materials and the advantages of using composite propeller over the conventional metallic propeller. By using ANSYS software modal analysis and static structural analysis were carried out for both aluminum and CFRP.