Abstract
It is well known that flexible composite material propeller has superior radiation noise characteristics with outstanding damping effects. In this paper, three flexible composite material propellers were produced using compression molding process, and their hydrodynamic performances and radiation noise characteristics were measured. One propeller, C1, was made up from carbon/epoxy composite laminates, and the other two ones, G1 and G2, from glass/epoxy ones. Their fiber arrays were selected by the progressive damage structural analysis of propellers using composite material model MAT_162 (Composite_DMG_MSC) linked with LS-DYNA code. Carbon/epoxy and glass/epoxy composite specimen tests were performed, their damage mechanisms were figured out, and their parameters were calibrated by their progressive damage structural analysis according to their damage criteria.