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On May 19, 2023, at the award ceremony of the Turbomachinery Society of Japan held at Ito Campus, Kyusyu University, Dr. Shiraishi Koichiro; Chief Researcher, Dr. Arakawa Daijiro; Chief Researcher, Mr. Sawada Yuki; Researcher and Ms. Kaneko Azumi; Researcher received the Turbomachinery Society Award (Paper Award) from the Turbomachinery Society of Japan.

Paper Title：Multi-objective Optimization for Marine Propeller Blade Shapes Using Differential Evolution Algorithm, Journal "Turbo Machinery", Vol.50, No.12, December 2022.

The recipients of the award:
Shiraishi Koichiro; Fluids Engineering & Hull Design Department, National Maritime Research Institute, MPAT
Arakawa Daijiro; Fluids Engineering & Hull Design Department, National Maritime Research Institute, MPAT
Sawada Yuki; Fluids Engineering & Hull Design Department, National Maritime Research Institute, MPAT
Kaneko Azumi; Fluids Engineering & Hull Design Department, National Maritime Research Institute, MPAT
Kanemaru Takashi; Graduate school of Engineering, Kyusyu University
Ando Jun; Graduate School of Engineering, Kyusyu University

About awarded research:
Blade shape optimization of marine propellers is generally formulated as an optimization problem to maximize efficiency in uniform flow. For practical design, it is essential to optimize not only propeller efficiency, but also cavitation performance and thrust difference from the target required for propulsion. In addition, because propeller blade geometry is complex, the design variables used to describe the geometry of it are high-dimensional. The search for a reasonable solution is time-consuming. In this study, the blade shape optimization problem of marine propellers is formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem. The optimal propeller blade shape is searched for using multi-objective JADE which is a Differential Evolution algorithm with high search performance. In numerical simulations, authors have shown that the developed method can search for a better blade shape compared to the original propeller and verify the validity of the blade shape obtained in model experiment.

from the left; Dr. Arakawa, Mr. Sawada, Dr. Shiraishi and Ms. Kaneko

Comparison of performance between the improved propeller with optimization and the original propeller.
（Left: Propeller efficiency, Right: Cavitation pattern）