The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the erosion risk due to propeller cavitation. In many cases, cavitation induces noise, vibration and there is a possibility of erosion problems. Especially rapid change of pressure, induced by collapsing of cavitation, causes the erosion problem. Thus, the prediction of cavitation in marine propellers is essential to estimating the performance of the vessel.
The simulation is carried out for the erosion case of a capesize bulk carrier. The design propeller for the subject vessel has damage due to erosive cavitation in full scale. To protect it from erosion problem, an edge modified plan was applied. When both propellers are compared in cavitation observation and erosion tests, the modified propeller does not have erosive cavitation, while the design propeller does. The result of simulation is also compared to experimental data and shows good agreement in this study. Finally, the erosion assessment is carried out based on the erosion index and it gives good criteria for assessment for erosion risk.
