Numerical Investigation of a Marine Propeller Blade for Material Effect and Stress Behaviour

The process of designing a marine propeller for under water applications involves various complex analyses. Analysis is of iterative in nature which makes it cumbersome and inefficient to understand. A part of the research work entitled in this paper is concerned with the material effect and stress behavioural characteristics of a marine propeller blade subjected to cantilever condition. Designing and analysing the behaviour of an anisotropic composite material is one of the most important technologies in the area of marine propulsion. Based on FEM the conventional and composite material marine propeller blades are analysed. To simulate the blade layup and to determine the stress characteristics, ANSYS software with shell 181 elements is taken for reference. A study has also been carried out for determining the stress and deformation pattern arising due to varying ply layup and material. The obtained numerical results are then compared and summarised in. Computational efficiency and integrity of the presently adapted method in this work are determined by several case studies.