Proceedings of the Thirty-second (2022) International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference
Shanghai, China, June 5–10, 2022
Copyright © 2022 by the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE)
ISBN 978-1-880653-81-4; ISSN 1098-6189

www.isope.org

Investigation on Aerodynamic Performance Optimization of Air Propellers on an Air Cushion Vehicle
Hubing Chu, Haipeng Zhang, Lingbo Zhuge, Kejie Chen,Genquan Zhang
Marine Design & Research Institute of China
Shanghai, China

ABSTRACT

Based on the author’s previous studies of the parameters influence rulesof the air propellers on the aerodynamic performance(Chu and Zhuge,2021), this paper attempts to improve the propulsion efficiency of the
air propellers on an air cushion vehicle by optimizing the parameters ofradial airfoil sections and radial twist angles, so as to make the airpropellers better meet the thrust requirements of the air cushion vehicle.

In order to improve the propulsion efficiency of air propellers on an air
cushion vehicle, the aerodynamic performance optimization work iscarried out in this paper based on the parametric modeling, genetic
algorithm, design-of-experiment and numerical simulation methods. By
optimizing the radial airfoil sections and radial twist angles of theblades, the propulsion efficiency of air propellers at rated power isincreased by about 3.35%, making the air propellers better meet thethrust requirement when the air cushion vehicle crosses over theresistance peak and sails at terrible sea states.

RESEARCH MODEL
The geometry of the air propellers on an air cushion vehicle is shown in
Fig.1. It has 4 blades for each propeller. A duct is installed around theblades, which is used to protect the operation safety of the blades on
one hand. On the other hand, the duct can also provide additional thrustand improve the total propulsion efficiency of the air propeller.

KEY WORDS: Air cushion vehicle; air propeller; optimization;
radial airfoil sections; radial twist angles; parametric modeling; genetic
algorithm; design-of-experiment; numerical simulation.

INTRODUCTION
Air cushion vehicle is one kind of high-performance ship that uses thelift fan system to lift up the hull off the water, which can greatly reduce
the hydrodynamic resistance and make the air cushion vehicle sail at
higher speeds. Since the hull is almost separated from the water surface,conventional water propellers can’t be used for air cushion vehicles.
Instead, air propellers are used to provide thrust for air cushion vehicles.
The aerodynamic performance of air propellers will directly determine
the overall performance of the air cushion vehicles(Yang and Zhang,2014). Therefore, aerodynamic performance design and optimization of
air propellers becomes an important content for the design of aircushion vehicles(Ma and Wu, 2012).
The main parameters that affecting the aerodynamic performance of the
air propellers are blade width, blade number, tip gap, etc(Liu, 2006). In
order to improve the aerodynamic performance of air propellers,scholars have carried out a lot of researches. Kamal and Célia(2019)studied the influence of radial airfoil sections on the aerodynamicperformance of an air propeller based on the BEM method.
Veronica(2013) studied the influence of radial twist angles on theaerodynamic performance of a small wind turbine blade based on thepropeller theory. Chu and Zhuge(2021) gained the influence laws of
blade width, blade number, tip gap, radial airfoil sections, radial twist
angles on the propulsion performance of air propellers on an aircushion vehicle.

Fig.1 Consists of the research modelRESEARCH METHOD
Prediction methods of the aerodynamic performance
The main methods to predict the aerodynamic performance of air
propellers are theoretical calculation, wind tunnel tests, numericalsimulation and so on. Theoretical calculation methods such as theBlade-Element-Method(Yuan, Chen and Ma, 2008) consumes very little
calculation time and can quickly predict the aerodynamic performance

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