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Design Methods for the next generation of Naval propellers: NextProp project

Kick-off meeting of “NextProp” (Next Generation of Propellers) project has been held in remote on the 14th December 2020. NextProp is an Ad Hoc R&T Project with European Defence Agency (EDA) serving as the Contracting Authority. The Contributing Members to the Project under this Contract are the Ministry of Defence of the Italian Republic, the Ministry of Defence of the Kingdom of Norway and the Minister of National Defence of the Republic of Poland.

The main objective of the Project under this Contract is to develop and establish the required hydro-elastic software and design tools for the modelling of next generation low noise naval propellers. Advanced models for new and modern materials, such as composite materials, will be integrated in the numerical tools, to aid the design of innovative composite propellers. Naval propeller design involves a wide range of aspects, including efficiency, weight, durability, cost, and signature. The emerging field of composite propellers has the potential to improve several of these aspects, in particular weight and signature. The work program include computational fluid dynamics (CFD), finite element analysis (FEA), fluid-structure interaction (FSI), and theoretical models. The models will be validated through controlled prototype experiments on a generic foil and a typical propeller.

A number of secondary goals follow from the main objective: improve the current understanding of the primary mechanisms for sound generation and propagation; improve the competence on composite propellers with focus on manufacturing and design of such propellers; study integration of sensors as part of a condition-based maintenance program; and improve test methods and the experimental set-up for modern propellers.

The project is coordinated by Forsvarets Forskningsinstitutt (Norwegian Defence Research Establishment) (Norway) with large partecipation of industrial and research entities:
FiReCo (Norway), Light Structures (Norway), SINTEF Ocean AS ( Norway), Centro per gli Studi di Tecnica Navale – CETENA S.p.A., (Italy), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche – Istituto di Ingegneria del Mare (CNR-INM, Italy), Politecnico di Milano (Italy), Polish Naval Academy (Poland).

Politecnico di Milano will participate to the project by a research team inside Department of Mechanical Engineering lead by Kick-off meeting of “NextProp” (Next Generation of Propellers) project has been held in remote on the 14th December 2020. NextProp is an Ad Hoc R&T Project with European Defence Agency (EDA) serving as the Contracting Authority. The Contributing Members to the Project under this Contract are the Ministry of Defence of the Italian Republic, the Ministry of Defence of the Kingdom of Norway and the Minister of National Defence of the Republic of Poland. The main objective of the Project under this Contract is to develop and establish the required hydro-elastic software and design tools for the modelling of next generation low noise naval propellers. Advanced models for new and modern materials, such as composite materials, will be integrated in the numerical tools, to aid the design of innovative composite propellers. Naval propeller design involves a wide range of aspects, including efficiency, weight, durability, cost, and signature. The emerging field of composite propellers has the potential to improve several of these aspects, in particular weight and signature. The work program include computational fluid dynamics (CFD), finite element analysis (FEA), fluid-structure interaction (FSI), and theoretical models. The models will be validated through controlled prototype experiments on a generic foil and a typical propeller. A number of secondary goals follow from the main objective: improve the current understanding of the primary mechanisms for sound generation and propagation; improve the competence on composite propellers with focus on manufacturing and design of such propellers; study integration of sensors as part of a condition-based maintenance program; and improve test methods and the experimental set-up for modern propellers. The project is coordinated by Forsvarets Forskningsinstitutt (Norwegian Defence Research Establishment) (Norway) with large partecipation of industrial and research entities: FiReCo (Norway), Light Structures (Norway), SINTEF Ocean AS ( Norway), Centro per gli Studi di Tecnica Navale – CETENA S.p.A., (Italy), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche – Istituto di Ingegneria del Mare (CNR-INM, Italy), Politecnico di Milano (Italy), Polish Naval Academy (Poland). Politecnico di Milano will participate to the project by a research team inside Department of Mechanical Engineering lead by Prof. Andrea Manes and Prof. Marco Giglio. Key expertise of the research team for the project are in the fields of structural modelling of composite materials under extreme loading conditions. Main contribution will be in the area of material testing and characterization and nonlinear structural numerical modelling. The wide range of material properties and design parameters related to composite materials also points to modelling capabilities as crucial in the propeller design process, and in the understanding of the behavior of proposed composite material designs. and Prof. Marco Giglio. Key expertise of the research team for the project are in the fields of structural modelling of composite materials under extreme loading conditions. Main contribution will be in the area of material testing and characterization and nonlinear structural numerical modelling. The wide range of material properties and design parameters related to composite materials also points to modelling capabilities as crucial in the propeller design process, and in the understanding of the behavior of proposed composite material designs.