We present a simple surface panel method to predict steady marine propeller performance. This method uses source distributions (Hess and Smith type) on the wing surface and discrete vortex distributions arranged on the camber surface according to Lan's quasi-continuous vortex lattice method (QCM). Then these singularities are determined at a time by solving simultaneously both the wing surface and the camber surface conditions that the normal velocity should be zero. Since these singularities satisfy automatically the Kutta condition, we need not use any iterative procedure. We named this method SQCM (Source and QCM).
We show numerical results for four kinds propellers (DTRC 4119, DTRC 4842, Seiunmaru conventional and highly skewed propellers) in this paper. Pressure distributions obtained by the present method are in good agreement with the experimental data and other numerical results. Though the viscous effects are not taken into consideration in the present calculations, the calculated thrust and torque coefficients agree qualitatively with experimental results.