AI-Driven Performance-to-Design Generation and Optimization of Marine Propellers

TL;DR

This paper presents an AI framework combining physics-based data generation and generative models to efficiently design marine propellers with desired performance, reducing iteration time and reliance on costly simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel AI-driven design pipeline with a physics-based dataset, a conditional generation model, a neural surrogate predictor, and an evolutionary refinement process for marine propellers.

Findings

The framework generates hydrodynamically plausible designs matching performance targets.

Diffusion-based generators produce more diverse designs than VAEs under the same conditions.

The approach significantly reduces design-iteration time compared to traditional methods.

Abstract

AI is increasingly used to accelerate engineering design by improving decision-making and shortening iteration cycles. Application to marine propeller design, however, remains challenging due to scarce training data and the lack of widely available pretrained models. We address this gap with a physics-based data generation pipeline and a generative-AI framework for direct performance-to-design generation tailored to marine propellers. First, we build a database of over 20,000 four- and five-bladed propeller geometries, each accompanied by simulated open-water performance curves. On top of this dataset, we develop a three-module design framework: (1) A Conditional Generation Model that proposes candidate geometries conditioned on design specifications such as target thrust, power, and diameter. (2) A Performance Prediction Model, implemented as a neural-network surrogate, that predicts thrust, torque, and efficiency in milliseconds, enabling rapid evaluation of generated designs. (3) A design refinement stage that applies evolutionary optimization to enforce practical constraints such as required thrust under power limits and bounds on blade-area ratio and thickness. Experimental results over a range of operating conditions show that the framework can generate hydrodynamically plausible propeller designs that match prescribed performance targets while substantially reducing design-iteration time relative to the traditional expert-guided refinement. Latent diffusion-based generator produces more diverse designs under the same conditions than the conditional variational autoencoder, suggesting a stronger capacity for design-space exploration with diffusion models. By coupling physics-based data synthesis with modular AI models, the proposed approach streamlines the propeller design cycle and reduces reliance on expensive high-fidelity simulations to final validation stages.