Numerical analysis of a PWC propulsion system with OpenFoam

Abstract

The personal watercraft (PWC) concept was originated in the 1960s. Since then, PWCs have been developed to provide more powerful and efficient vehicles. The key of these im- provements lies on their propulsion system, which roughly consists of a dynamic (impeller) and a static (stator) part in a confined tube. Therefore, the overall aim of this project is to develop a numerical study of a PWC jet-pump based on the existing configuration for a Bombardier xp 951 99, considering not only the impeller and the stator, but the whole propulsion system in order to approach a solution to the real problem. More specifically, this study is aimed to achieve a description of the flow behavior, analyzing the results for several force coefficients such as the thrust C t and momentum coefficient C m at different operating conditions. On the other hand, CAESES is used to model the domain under consideration. Numerical simulations are performed by means of OpenFOAm R , whose built-in utility snappyHexMesh is used to generate the computational grid. Turbulent, incompressible, 3D simulations based on the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) approach are performed. The sliding-mesh technique Arbitrary Mesh Interface (AMI) is considered to achieve the sliding grid that will allow the impeller to rotate. For the entire bulk of the stack of simulations, the incompressible solver pimpleDyMFoam is used.