Hydrodynamic performance evaluation of pump-jet propulsion based on the toroidal propeller

Pump jet propulsion (PJP) is a widely used propulsion method for underwater vehicles. Compared with traditional propeller propulsions, it has the characteristics of higher propulsion efficiency, lower noise, and better performance. A novel propeller with annular blades, named as ‘the toroidal propeller’, is designed and discussed with its characteristic parameters. Then the novel propeller is installed to the PJP and Suboff submarine to evaluate its performance with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. The high-speed range of modified submarine with the toroidal propeller is also predicted and analyzed through propulsion parameters. The results indicate that when the toroidal propeller is applied to the PJP of underwater vehicle, its propulsion efficiency can reach 0.88 at the speed coefficient of 1.2. When the rotator speed is 5000 RPM, the pump jet thruster with toroidal propellers can continue to provide effective thrust, which will easily cause the speed of submarine to exceed 60 kn.