Unconventional Propeller Tip Design - Hydrodynamic Study
Master thesis
Date
2015Metadata
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- Institutt for marin teknikk [3404]
Abstract
Winglets have been successful in the aircraft industry, but have not yet seen widespread use on marine propellers.
Three different propellers (one conventional and two equipped with winglets) have been modelled and analysed with the CFD software STAR-CCM+. The winglet propellers achieved up to 40 % greater thrust than the conventional propeller at the operational propulsion point, but the torque increased even more - meaning that the overall open water efficiency was reduced by as much as 8.7 percentage points. The cavitation performance was also worse.Much of the negative effects are assumed to be caused by an unfavourable winglet design.
It is concluded that this type of propellers may have a potential for better efficiency if the winglets are carefully designed.