NAME 400

project & Thesis

Development of a plug-in for grasshopper for
designing ship propeller in Rhinoceros.
Presented By

Abul Kalam Faruk

Std. ID: 1012011

Under the Supervision of

Professor Dr. M. Rafiqul Islam
DEPARTMENT OF NAVAL ARCHITECTUR & MARINE ENGINEERING
BANGLADESH UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY .

Contents
Title
Objectives
Problem statement
Introduction

Target of Work
Parametric Design in Ship Building
Rhinoceros
Grasshopper

Methodology
Demonstration
Results
Limitation
Future Development

Objectives
Development of a Plugin for Rhinoceros's Grasshopper.
Development of tool for designing Ship propeller.
Designing several propeller geometry with the tool developed.
Derivation of various propeller characteristics curves from the design.
Visualization of developed tool with other tools in the market.

Problem Statement
Numerical generation of propeller geometry is important for analysis of the performance
of ship propellers. In this thesis, An open source parametric tool is developed to
generate propeller geometry from design particulars integrated within a
plugin for Grasshopper, a parametric design program inside Rhino3D.
Grasshopper is a parametric design program which is widely used in architecture and
design. The aim of the thesis is to develop the tool to generate propeller which can be
used to get full benefit of popular the optimization tools developed in grasshopper to
optimize desired propeller.

Introduction
Well-Known Wageningen B-series propellers was first started to develop in The
Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN) from 1932. First series were published
by Van Lamerren and Troost. It was extended to 6 and 7 bladed propellers in the 1970s.
In 2003 paper, Tanaka and Yoshida developed a computer program for propeller
designers which transforms the dimensionless tables obtained from propeller series
experiments into numerical graphics with great accuracy.
Andrzej Rachwalik (2013)developed a parametric B-Wageningen Screw Model for CFD
analysis in siemens NX8.0, which then simulated in STAR-CCM+ from Cd-Adapco.
OpenProp, a parametric propeller geometry design software build in MATLAB, began in
2001 with the propeller code PVL developed by Kerwin [2007] as part of his MIT propeller
design course notes. It was incorporated with a GUI for displaying blades geometry.

Scope of Work
There are several tools for generating and optimizing ship propellers. Prop Cad and Open
prop are the most popular among designers. Prop Cad is a commercial software which is
expensive. And Open prop is an open source tool developed in MATLAB which is a
computational programming language. The integration of MATLAB to CAD packages are
complex.
In this thesis, a novel approach has been taken to generate propeller geometry inside one
of the most widely used CAD software in the market, Rhino3D. To achieve this, a plugin
has been developed to use this tool. It is an open source tool integrated in Rhino and
Grasshopper.
This CAD Model can be used in CFD analysis for determining propellers performance
characteristics. And as a parametric tool, the model can easily be modified with proper
requirements.

Parametric Design
Parametric design is a process based on algorithmic thinking that enables the expression of
parameters and rules that, together, define, encode and clarify the relationship between design intent
and design response.
Popular Parametric Tools:
Catia
Grasshopper
NAPA
CAESES
Popular Parametric uses:
Urban Design
Architecture
Mechanical Design.
Naval Architecture.

Rhinoceros
Why it is Chosen:
Highly Customizable Software.
Easy to Use.
Various Plugin Available for ship Design:

Orca3D,
T-spline
It hosts Grasshopper, one of the industry
standard Parametric plugin available.

Grasshopper
Grasshopper is a graphical algorithm editor
tightly integrated with Rhinos 3-D modeling tools.
Unlike RhinoScript, Grasshopper requires no
knowledge of programming or scripting, but still
allows designers to design form of various objects.
Advantages:
Parametric Design Platform
Node based non-destructive Design
Integrated with Python, C#, Visual Basic.
Popular among industry leaders in Architecture.
Easy to develop design algorithm.

Grasshopper

Developed Program

Developed program with other popular programs

available.

Viewport

Viewport

Viewport

Prop CAD

MATLAB (open prop)

Developed Tool

Comparison
Prop CAD

Open Prop

Developed Tool

Commercial

Open source

Open source

Standalone CAD Package

Integrated in MATLAB

Integrated in Rhino

On click build

On click build

Real-time build

No third Party tools

Limited Third-party tools

Open to Wide range of 3rd

party grasshopper tools
especially genetic optimization
tools like Octopus, Galapagos.

Methodology
For generating the propeller, Wageningen B-Screw series is used. This is the most
extensive and widely used propeller series.
The Wageningen Series is a general purpose, fixed pitch, non-ducted propeller series.
The extent of the series is:

W.B series Reference Table

Ar, Br = constants in equation for t/D.
a = distance between leading edge and
generator line at r.
b = distance between leading edge and
location of
maximum thickness.
c = chord length of blade section ar
radius r.
t = maximum blade section thickness at
radius r

Parametric Code Generation

Programing Language:
Python,
C#, and
Grasshoppers Graphical Programming

Software Used:
Rhino3d with grasshopper.
Visual Studio 2015 community Edition

Steps:
Grasshopper
Plug-in

Graphical
Algorithm

Python
Script

Creating Plugin in Visual studio 2015 with C# for

grasshopper.
Loading the plugin in Grasshopper and rhino.
Using grasshoppers robust node based graphical tools, first a
sudo algorithm for the propeller is generated
The operability of the algorithm is checked real-time.
With the help of developed graphical algorithm A python script is developed to use as a plugin
tool.

Building the Plugin in Visual Studio

Grasshopper Plugin

Flow chart of the Algorithm

Input
Parameters

Design Constant
from Reference
Table (W. B
Series)

Draw the
expanded
Sections

Project the
section on
Cylindrical
Surface

Output
Geometry

Array the blades

with blade
number

Creating surface
with these
section

Move and rotate

the sections in
r/R and pitch
measurement

Defining Input Parameters

Creating the Expanded Section

Projection Curve Generation

Blade Surface Generation

Output

Drawing Curves

3d Propeller

Demonstration

Results ( Variant 1)
Properties

Value

Diameter

4.0

Pitch

BAR

.55

Blade Number

Results (Variant 2)
Properties

Value

Diameter

5.0

Pitch

BAR

.65

Blade Number

Results (Variant 3)
Properties

Value

Diameter

4.0

Pitch

BAR

.80

Blade Number

Result (Variant 4)
Properties

Value

Diameter

7.0

Pitch

BAR

.90

Blade Number

Theoretical EAR vs Drawing EAR

1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
Variant 1

Variant 2
BAR (DWG)

Variant 3
BAR (Calc.)

Variant 4

Theoretical DAR vs Drawing DAR

1
0.9
0.8

Theoretical DAR:
EAR/DAR=.34(2.75+DAR/Z)

0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
Variant 1

Variant 2
BAR (DWG)

Variant 3
BAR (Calc.)

Variant 4

Theoretical PAR vs Drawing PAR

0.9
0.8

Theoretical PAR:
PAR/DAR=1.067-.229*P/D

0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
Variant 1

Variant 2
BAR (DWG)

Variant 3
BAR (Calc.)

Variant 4

Limitation of the Program

Limited to only Wageninegen B-Screw series propeller.
Generated model is not a solid surface as extra work needed for 3d printing.
Only generates surface, as for CFD , other programs should be used.
Limited to only a small range of propellers.
Third party program.

Future Projections
Tool for other propeller series such as Gawn Series, Japanese AU series, KCA series,
Lindgren series.
Improvement in the accuracy.
Propeller optimization inside the program.
Auto generating solid surface for CFD.
More improvement on the visualization of the propeller.

Summary & Recommendation

In this thesis, from the basic particulars of the propeller, 3D and 2D geometry drawing
has been produced automatically using parametric algorithm.
For reference, Wageninegen B-Srew Series has been used as it is the most popular
series.
The tool to generate propeller as well as the plugin for Grasshopper has developed.
The deviation in the result can be mitigated through using a advance NURBS algorithm
to generate surface.
In future development, improvement should be done both in accuracy and ease of use.

Reference:
1.

The Wageningen C- and D-Series Propellers J. Dang, MARIN, The Netherlands ,H. J. J. van den Boom, MARIN, The
Netherlands ,J. Th. Ligtelijn, MARIN, The Netherlands

2.

Wikipedia (2016), Propeller (Marine), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/propeller (marine).

3.

TANAKA, H., YOSHIDA, Y.: An Approach to Transformation of Non-Dimensional Diagrams into Nomograms and its
Application to New Propeller Design System, Marine Technology V, Book Series: Marine and Maritime, Vol. 3, p. 91-102,
(2003).

4.

OpenProp: An Open-source Parametric Design and Analysis Tool for Propellers Brenden Epps, Julie Chalfant, Richard
Kimball, Alexandra Techet, Kevin Flood, and Chrysssostomos.

5.

Principal of Naval Architecture Vol:2, SNAME.

6.

Basic Ship Propulsion by J.P. Ghose, R.P. Gokarn.

7.

Marine Propellers and Propulsion by JS Carlton.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Thank You.