The propeller–duct interaction on the wake dynamics of a ducted propeller is numerically investigated via detached eddy simulations. The blade–blade interference and blade–duct interaction are analyzed through different configurations under non-ducted and ducted conditions. It is found that the blade–blade interference benefits the loading stability, and the duct leads to a faster efficiency decrease in a single blade with the increasing blade number. The short-wave instability dominates the wake as the unstable secondary vortices accelerates the vortex evolution. The multi-induction effect stabilizes the two tip vortices system in a two-bladed configuration, while the tip vortex grouping occurs early in a four-bladed propeller due to the combined effect of the duct retardation and smaller spiral-to-spiral distance. Additionally, the enhanced wake instability leads to the fast decline of the power spectral density peaks of kinetic energy at blade passing frequency and shaft frequency harmonics toward the far field under ducted conditions.

Pump-jets have a relatively high propulsion efficiency at medium speed and in heavy-load conditions for wheeled amphibious vehicles. However, the geometry of amphibious vehicles is very special due to the installation requirements of the pump-jet, which results in an obvious resistance on the wheels. In order to reduce the resistance of the amphibious vehicle, the resistance characteristics of the wheels are studied. Regarding a pump-jet-propelled wheeled amphibious vehicle, its wheel resistance characteristics in a wide speed range are firstly analyzed based on experiments and numerical simulations. By comparing the resistance of the amphibious vehicle with and without wheels, it is found that the hydrodynamic effect of wheels can increase the total resistance of the amphibious vehicle by 14~28%. Then, the wheel hydrodynamic effect is divided into local effect and global effect. By analyzing the changes in resistance, pressure distribution and streamline, the influence and hydro-mechanism of each effect are explored in detail. It is found that the longitudinal convex and concave structures formed by the wheels and wheel wells have a large negative effect on the total resistance. According to the hydro-mechanism, two resistance improvement approaches are proposed, which includes increasing wheel retraction and installing flat plates on the wheel well bottom. Finally, the ultimate resistance improvement model can reduce resistance by no less than 10% and power by on less than 8% in design speed.