PROPELLERS

NAME: A. Manish Kumar

ROLLNO: 319106918066
Overlapping propellers:
1. It is a two-propeller concept, in this case the propellers are not mounted coaxially
but are arranged in such a way that the distance between both the shafts is less than
the diameters of the propellers.
2. In this type of propeller, the main aim is to make use of the low velocity wake that
can increase the propeller efficiency. One propeller produces the wake while the
other propeller works in that wake with lesser resistance.
3. The variables present in this design are,
• Distance between two shafts.
• Rotation direction of the shafts.
• Longitudinal distance between the propellers and the stern shape.
4. According the recent research the best distance between the two propellers is
nearly 0.8D.
Contra-rotating propellers:
1. It has two oppositely rotating propellers that are sited coaxially one behind another.
As one propeller is behind the other propeller, the aft of the two propellers can
work in the wake of the other propeller where lesser resistance is offered.
2. Due to the two propellers these types of propellers can balance the torque reaction
that can be utilized in the torpedoes and other simple nautical devices.
3. In these types of propellers, the aftmost propeller tends to have a smaller diameter
so as to accommodate the slip-stream affect.
4. Generally, the aft most propeller has a more blades than the foremost propeller,
typically the aftmost has 5 blades whereas the forward one has 4 blades.
5. These are generally used in the high-speed output units that operate at around
1500-2000 rpm.
6. Due to the long shafting required for operation and mounting of two individual
propellers these are not employed in the cargo carrying vessels.
7. However, these were employed in 37000 dwt bulk carrier in 1988 and also in a
258000 dwt VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier) in 1993.
Controllable-pitch propellers:
1. The controllable pitch propeller in contrast to a fixed pitch propeller has to two
variables, one is the operational speed and the latter being its ability to change the
blade pitch. However, the former is held constant reducing the variables again to
one.
2. It is observed according to the data from Lloyds register that the CPP are mostly
favored in passenger vessels, ferries, general cargo, tug, trawling vessels and are
capable of 2000bhp.
3. Generally, its usage is not only limited to the ships but also widely used in aircrafts
to reduce the landing distance of the aircraft.
4. The advantages with CPP:
1. The fine thrust control for acceleration or deceleration can be achieved without
having to change the torque in the propeller shaft.
2. The blades of the can be arranged to obtain the feathering of the propeller. The
feathering is arranging the propellers in a way in which they offer least
resistance for the forward motion of the ship when the blades are not rotating.
5. The major disadvantage of CPP is that they require larger hub diameters as they
have to support both the actuation mechanism (change of pitch) and the
transmission forces that of blades to shaft that increases the resistance and can
cause cavitation.
6. The pitch of a propeller is given by,
 = tan-1 (p/2r)
Where p is the distance travelled in one rotation and r is radius of the tip circle.
Clearly, if the pitch angle increases, the distance travelled in on rotation increases.

7. If a negative pitch is created then the reverse thrust in a CPP can be achieved. This
negative pitch leads to the thrust directed in the forward direction that pushes the
ship in the backward direction, meaning the propeller accelerates the water in the
forward direction.
The working of a controllable pitch propeller can be diagrammatically shown as:
Tandem propellers:
1. In this propeller there are more than two propellers that are mounted on the same
shaft. The best example is Parson’s Turbinia, where three propellers were used to
reduce cavitation and induce thrust breakdown.
2. The major disadvantage is the bending moment and stresses that are induced due to
the mounting of the multiple propellers.
3. This further requires the usage of multiple stern tubes to constrain the propeller
shaft without any bending.

Fixed pitch propellers:

1. There are generally two types in a fixed pitch propeller, one is the Monoblock
model (mostly used now a days) and built-up form that was used a long time
ago.
2. In the Monoblock the blades are cast as a single unit along with the blades
where as in the built-up form the blades are bolted to the hub.
3. Generally, for large propellers (300mm diameter), high tensile brass together
with manganese and nickel-aluminum bronzes are used for the construction.
For smaller propellers, polymers, aluminum and carbon fiber composites are
used.
4. The independent variable is the choice for the number of blades to be used to
ensure that there is enough spacing between the blade roots in the hub.
5. These blade number usually vary from 2 to 7, typically for a commercial vessel
4 to 6 blades are favored. Incase of smaller boats 2 or 3 blades are employed.
6. The major problem with the fixed pitch propeller is the cavitation.
Super cavitating, partially cavitating and surface piercing propellers.
1. In some cases, we cannot control the amount of cavitation in those cases we
will employ the super cavitating propellers. Here, the cavity developed on the
back of the blades extends beyond the surface and collapse in the wake of the
blades not affecting the blades. These are used pleasure crafts and high-speed
naval vessels.
2. When the tip immersion is very small then the propeller tends to draw in air
from the atmosphere called as ventilation, in this the case the super cavitating
propeller can be less efficient.
3. Such propellers are called as the surface piercing propellers which operate half
inside the water and the other half outside the water.
4. This design may lead to material fatigue, induced vibration so these are
generally only employed in the high-speed small vessels.
5. In the figure shown below in (a) are the non-cavitating propellers and (b)
partially cavitating and in (c) super cavitating propeller. Its shows how the
cavity is formed on the blade.
 6. Above is the graph that shows the relation between the efficiency and the ship
speed in the case of the three propellers.

Ducted Propellers:
1. As the name suggests in this type of propeller the blades and hub are placed in a
duct like shape, these have two important components, one is the aerofoil shaped
duct that may have a uniform or varying cross-section.
2. The second component is the modification of the conventional propeller to use the
interactions of flow field caused by the ducts.
3. It is to be carefully ensured that the distance between the blade tip and duct show
not be very small as it may lead to cavitation and it should not be very small as it
may not interact and use the advantage of the ducts.
4. The propeller used can be fixed or can be a controllable pitch propeller and in some
such as torpedoes the contra-rotating propellers may also be employed.
5. These types of propellers are generally employed where high thrust is required in
the low-speed operations, used widely in fishing and trawling situations.
6. The working can be understood using the continuity equation,
Aava = Abvb
The two major types are:
1. Accelerating duct: From the figure it is clear that the area near the propeller is
greater than the are at the top, hence va must be lesser than vb.

2. Decelerating duct: If we reverse the aerofoil used in the case of the accelerating
propeller then we will obtain the decelerating duct. It has opposite effects that
increase va and decrease the value of vb.

7. The ducted propellers generally have a propeller diameter of 0.5m to 8m. In the
case of the non-uniform ducts, it is to be ensured that the design is not very
complex which can make the fabrication a challenging task.
8. These propellers are generally used in tugs where both the astern and ahead
maneuvering is required.
9. If we want to control the noise resulting from cavitation then we can employ the
decelerating duct. Due to these properties these are used in the naval vessels.
10. The duct may be rotated 360 degrees by mounting it on a pintles whose axis is lie
on the vertical diameter of the propeller disc. In this way, we can remove the
rudder and use the propeller itself for directional change.
Podded and azimuthing propellers:
1.