Study on Performance of a Ship Propeller Using a Composite Material

Recently, applying a composite material to ship propellers is considered. A phenomenon of the composite material propeller is to deform elastically while a propeller rotating. Using this phenomenon, the design of a new concept propeller which is a high efficiency and reduces a cavitation by adapting to ship wake is studied. This present paper will describe the composite propeller performances (propeller characteristics and cavitation performance) under the elastic deformation. The several model propellers with the different Young’s modulas are made. In order to confirm the propeller characteristics and the cavitation performance of these propellers, the model tests are carried out in a cavitation tunnel of Akishima Laboratories (MITSUI ZOSEN) Inc. The thrust and torque of these propellers deforming elastically are measured, and are compared with the propeller characteristics of a propeller made by aluminum not to deform. And in order to evaluate the cavitation, the fluctuating pressure measurement is carried out in a wake flow simulated by a wire-meshed screen method. Moreover, the composite propeller is analyzed using FSI (Fluid Structure Interaction) analysis. We will present the comparison between the results of FSI analysis and the model tests results.