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PROPULSOR DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

• Machinery that develops high power at low

weight
• low fuel consumption at the optimum
rotational speed with minimum loss
• efficient propulsion device
• speed reduction device necessary
– leading to increased transmission losses

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Internal arrangement of a high speed craft

• long inclined shaft are given
• increases the resistance of the craft
• propeller efficiency and propeller induced
vibration
• restrictions on the diameter of the propeller
• serious problems of cavitation

• propulsion system of a ship consists of three main

components
• Engine
– high speed diesel engine
– gas turbine
• Transmission
– shaft (limit the inclination to an acceptable value)
– three short shafts connected by bevel gears forming
the so-called Z-drive
• stern of the craft
• capable of turning about a vertical axis

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• Propulsion device
– Commonly used in a high speed marine craft is the
screw propeller
• fixed pitch
• controllable pitch
– subcavitating,
– Supercavitating
– surface piercing types
– waterjet propulsion system

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• High speed diesel engine and the gas turbine

are unidirectional machines
• high speed craft requires astern thrust for
stopping and manoeuvring
– Shaft rotation to be reversed
– controllable pitch propellers
– reversing gear
– Waterjets

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• propeller is located below the hull so that the

shaft is inclined
• shaft should be as small as possible
• long shaft
• Most of the shaft outside the hull
• increases the loss in transmission of power
• increases the appendage drag of the craft
• made of material that has high corrosion
resistance and fatigue strength
• alignment of the shaft particularly (longitudinal
bending moments )

• Shaft inclination running trim of the vessel

and the effect of pitching
• use a cardan shaft arrangement to overcome
inclination problems
• alternative is the Z-drive

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Factors in the Choice of Propulsion Devices

• Subcavitating propellers are the most

commonly used devices for high speed craft
• Subcavitating propellers have been found to
be superior to supercavitating propellers at
speeds upto 42 knots
Where draught restrictions are a problem
• partially submerged or surface piercing
propeller may be used, particularly for speeds
over 35 knots

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• Waterjet propulsion systems were once believed

to be suitable only for speeds above 50 knots
• now used for much lower speeds in some
applications
shaft inclination has a major influence on efficiency
• small vessels, the shaft inclination may be up to
15 degrees to the horizontal
• larger and faster craft, i.e. displacements greater
than 20 tonnes and speeds in the 25-40 knot
range
– 12 degrees
• optimum efficiency and small vibration effects,
the shaft inclination should be limited to 6-8
degrees

• Various criteria have been put forward for a

propeller not to cavitate:

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• high speed craft is required to operate in two

widely different speed regimes
• difference between the two operating speeds
is substantial (more than 10 knots)
• engine may have upper and lower limits on its
power and rpm which make operation at both
speeds impracticable

Solutions
• controllable pitch propellers
• two speed reduction gearing
• multiple engines
• multiple sets of propellers
• independent propulsion systems for the two
speed regimes

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• When the propeller diameter is severely

restricted due to limited draught
• tunnel sterns or semi-ducts has been tried

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Advantage of a supercavitating propeller over a

subcavitating propeller
same speed, power and rpm
• It has a smaller diameter
• smaller shaft inclination
• smaller fluctuations in propeller forces
• smaller appendages and reduced appendage drag
• higher rpms and consequent reduction in the
weight of reduction gearing

• supercavitating propellers do not suffer from

cavitation erosion is implied
• section shape with its very sharp leading edge
– vulnerable to damage
• design process is long and complicated
• require experimental verification
• Operation of prop at below the design speed may
be extremely poor
– efficiency at intermediate speeds is too low
• astern performance of
– exceedingly poor

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• Design problems of propellers in which

cavitation is impossible to avoid by using
Transcavitating propellers
• propellers whose behaviour lies between
subcavitating and supercavitating propellers is
called Transcavitating propellers
• Newton-Rader propellers are the best
example of transcavitating propellers

surface piercing propeller

• It operates with its centre in or slightly above
the waterline, the backs of the propeller
blades in water being covered by an air filled
cavity
• blade sections are wedge shaped with a sharp
leading edge and a hollow face

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Advantages
• elimination of cavitation
• smaller appendages and reduced appendage
drag
• use of higher revolution rates
• smaller shaft inclination
• high efficiency : 0.650 – 0.720 in open water.

Disadvantages
• thrust and torque are generated only in the lower
part of the propeller disc
– large shaft bending moments and transverse forces
• propeller characteristics are poor at low speeds
when ventilation does not occur fully
• astern thrust is poor
No well developed design method for such
propellers and individual experimental
investigations are required

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• Waterjet propulsion system

• water is taken into the hull through a duct,
accelerated by a pump, and discharged in a jet
just above the waterline
• The inlet to the system is usually flush with the
hull surface in displacement vessels and planing
craft, and at the nozzle exit a thrust vectoring and
reversing mechanism is provided which
eliminates the need for a rudder or for reversing
the direction of rotation of the machinery

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• Advantages
– low draught requirements
– good manoeuvring and stopping characteristics
– less risk of damage
– reduced noise.

• Disadvantages
• The efficiency may be lower due to internal losses.
• The system contains many components and is more
complicated than a screw propeller arrangement.
• There is a risk of air ingestion into the system during
operation in a seaway, and this may cause damage to the
pump, the engine or the gearing
• The weight of the system including the water contained in
it can be considerable.
• The system occupies considerable space inside the craft.
• The inlet of the system is liable to get clogged if the craft
operates in dirty waters.

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• so that the angle of attack of the blade section

increases and decreases in a sinusoidal manner
• thrust and torque produced by the blade section also
fluctuates likewise, resulting in vibration

• The propulsion factors may be determined

from formulas such as the

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• General Design Considerations

• rpm is normally determined by the propulsion
machinery
– optimum propeller diameter and efficiency,
– vibration and avoidance of resonant frequencies
of the hull and the propeller shafting,
– propeller cavitation
– blade strength.

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SUPERCAVITATING PROPELLERS
Operating Conditions for Supercavitating Propellers
• It will be operating where there is cavitation to a
significant extent cannot be avoided
• Most usually high propeller rpm and high thrust
combined with small propeller diameter and low
submergence
• It can provide a high thrust without the erosive effects
of cavitation when operation at proper conditions.
• is likely to have a much lower efficiency than a
conventional propeller if the operating conditions are
not proper

• ensuring a certain
minimum efficiency
and ensuring either
almost no cavitation
or full cavitation in
which the cavity
covers the back of
each propeller
completely and
collapses well
downstream of the
propeller

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• Design Data
• charts based on the theoretical design
procedure of Tachmindji and Morgan have
been produced by Caster

• open water characteristics of a series of

propellers for high performance craft have
been given by Newton and Rader

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• Early designs of supercavitating propellers

used aerofoil and crescent shaped sections
• after the work of Tulin, wedge shaped sections
began to be used

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• propeller normally has a very thin leading

edge, blade strength is a major problem
• special materials of high strength and
hardness such as titanium alloys, copper-
beryllium alloys and special stainless steels
instead of the nickel-copper-aluminium alloys
• A supercavitating propeller must cavitate fully
and this happens only close to the design
speed

• low speed range when the supercavitating

propeller will not cavitate fully and hence work
inefficiently
• blade sections may be fitted with a trip wire near
the leading edge or have a step which promotes
flow separation and causes cavity formation at
lower speeds than normal
• introduce air into the flow at the back of the
blade near the leading edge through a duct in the
blade, i.e. produce a cavity by ventilation

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SURFACE PIERCING PROPELLERS

• It is is a screw propeller designed to operate partly out
of water
• The blades enter and leave the surface of water once
every revolution
• fitted to a ship just behind the hull instead of under
• Because of it the resistance due to these appendages is
eliminated
• total propulsion power required with a surface
piercing propeller may be substantially less than the
power required with a fully submerged propeller

• no problem of cavitation and cavitation

erosion
• back of each blade is filled with air from the
atmosphere
• blade area can be made small and the drag of
the blade reduced
• draught does not limit the diameter of a
surface piercing propeller to the same extent
as of a conventional propeller.

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• Disadvantages
• propeller blades enter and leave
– hydrodynamic forces on the blades are not
constant
– magnitude of these forces is also greater
compared to the forces on a fully submerged
propeller producing equal thrust
– strength of the propeller blades
– periodic loading of the propeller blades also
creates problems due to fatigue and vibration

• hydrodynamic forces on the propeller have a

significant component normal to the propeller
axis
– lower part of the propeller is submerged
• poor astern performance
• at low speeds the immersion of the propeller
may be excessive, leading to the overloading
of the propulsion plant

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Phases of Action
• In Phase 1 (“base vented phase”), with the propeller
operating at low slip (high values of the advance
coefficient J ), only a small amount of air is entrained
behind the trailing edge of each blade, the volume of
the air filled cavity depending upon the pressure drop
behind the blade. The tip vortex is also filled with air.

• As the loading on the propeller increases and J

decreases, Phase 2, the pressure drop over the back of
each blade causes increasing amounts of air to be
drawn in and the cavity to become larger. The cavity
remains confined behind the trailing edge, but there
may be streaks of air over the back of the blade in this
“partially vented” phase.

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• A further reduction in J results in an unsteady transition,

Phase 3 or “transition” phase, in which the air filled cavity
is unstable, the back of each blade being sometimes fully
wet, sometimes partially wet (covered with streaks of air)
and sometimes completely dry (i.e. with air cavity covering
the whole of the back). The thrust and torque coefficients,
KT and KQ , also fluctuate over a significant range of values.

• A still further reduction in the value of J , causes the air filled cavity
to enlarge and cover the whole of the back of the blade in Phase 4
or the “fully vented” phase. Since the cavity covers the back of the
blade, the back does not contribute to the hydrodynamic forces,
and the thrust and torque are generated almost entirely by the
positive pressures on the face of each blade. In this phase, the KT
and KQ curves of a surface piercing propeller are very different from
those of a fully submerged propeller in which the back of the
propeller blade makes the major contribution to thrust and torque.
The air cavities covering the backs of the blades have a large
thickness and there is considerable interference with the flow.

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• As J is reduced even further, the cavities

become so large as to restrict the flow
between the blades significantly. In this Phase
5 (“cavity blockage” phase), KT and KQ decrease
as J decreases.

• At very low values of J , the air supply to the cavities may be

choked by excessive spray, so that the pressure in the cavity
drops well below the atmospheric pressure. The back of the
blade covered with this low pressure air cavity then begins
to contribute to the thrust and torque, so that there is an
increase in KT and KQ as J decreases in this Phase 6 or “cavity
choking” phase.

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