Resumen
A method to replace a propeller by force and mass rate density fields has been developed. The force of the propeller on the flow is calculated using a boundary element method (BEM) program and used to generate the force and mass rate fields in a Reynolds-averaged Navier?Stokes (RANS) solver. The procedures to calculate the fields and to allocate them to the cells of a RANS grid are described in detail. The method has been implemented using the BEM program PROCAL and the RANS solver OpenFOAM and tested using the propeller DTMB P4384 operating in open water. Close to the design advance coefficient, the time-average flow fields generated by PROCAL and by OpenFOAM with the force and mass rate fields match to within 1.5% of the inflow speed over almost all of the flow field, including the swept volume of the blades. At two-thirds of the design advance coefficient, the match is about 4% of the inflow speed. The sensitivity of the method to several of its free parameters is investigated.