Propeller cavitation: Further tests on 16in. propeller models in the King’s College cavitation tunnel¹

Subtitle: Merchant ship propellers with four, five and six blades

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Burrill, L.C. | Emerson, A.

Note: [1] Paper read before the North East Coast Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders, Newcastle upon Tyne on 22nd March 1963.

Abstract: Results are presented for a four-bladed .60 expanded-area ratio merchant-ship propeller series tested in the cavitation tunnel in the Department of Naval Architecture and Shipbuilding, King’s College, Newcastle upon Tyne, over a wide range of advance coefficient and at cavitation numbers from the low values corresponding to twin-screw passenger-liner propellers up to the higher values for a large single-screw cargo ship. The variations studied are pitch-ratio, distribution of area and distribution of pitch, and, to some extent, changes in blade-section shape, and the paper includes design charts in the usual Bp−δ form, together with simple cavitation diagrams derived from the test results. Most of the work has been carried out in a uniform stream, but the final section relates to tests made in a radially variable stream velocity. The paper also considers specific designs at each end of the merchant-ship range; four- and five-bladed propellers for a passenger liner; five- and six-bladed propellers for a large tanker. Som observations of variable-wake tests are given.

DOI: 10.3233/ISP-1963-1010402

Journal: International Shipbuilding Progress, vol. 10, no. 104, pp. 119-131, 1963