Lines design 61

1. Icebreakers to break the ice by the negative pressure field in front of the
propeller.
2. Double-ended ferries, which change direction frequently.
3. Inland vessels, where they act as rudder propellers. In forward operation,
the forward propeller jets are directed obliquely so that they clear the hull.
Propellers are usually placed so that the gap between the upper blade tip and
the waterplane is roughly half the propeller diameter. This ensures that there
will still be sufficient propeller submergence at ballast draught with aft trim.
On single-screw vessels, the shaft between the aft peak bulkhead and the
outer shell aperture passes through the stern tube, at the aft end of which is
the stern tube bearing, a seawater-lubricated journal bearing. The inside of
the inner end of the stern tube is sealed by a gland. Oil-lubricated stern tube
bearings sealed off from seawater and the ship’s interior are also currently
in use. On twin-screw ships, the space between outer shell and propeller is
so large that the shaft requires at least one more mounting. The shaft can be
mounted in one of three ways—or a combination of them:
1. Shaft struts.
2. Shaft bossings with local bulging of the hull.
3. Grim-type shafts (elastic tubes carrying the shafts with a journal bearing at
the aft end).

2.7 Problems of design in broad, shallow-draught ships

Ships with high B/T ratios have two problems:
1. The propeller slipstream area is small in relation to the midship section
area. This reduces propulsion efficiency.
2. The waterline entrance angles increase in comparison with other ships with
the same fineness L/r1/3 . This leads to relatively high resistance.

Ways of increasing slipstream area

1. Multi-screw propulsion can increase propulsion efficiency. However, it
reduces hull efficiency, increases resistance and costs more to buy and
maintain.
2. Tunnels to accommodate a greater propeller diameter are applied less to
ocean-going ships than to inland vessels. The attainable propeller diameter
can be increased to 90% of the draught and more. However, this increases
resistance and suction resulting from the tunnel.
3. Raising the counter shortens the length of the waterline. This can increase
the resistance. Relatively high counters are found on most banana carriers,
which nearly always have limited draughts and relatively high power
outputs.
4. Extending the propeller below the keel line is sometimes employed on
destroyers and other warships, but rarely on cargo ships since the risk
of damaging the propeller is too great.
5. Increasing the draught to accommodate a greater propeller diameter is
often to be recommended, but not always possible. This decreases CB and
62 Ship Design for Efficiency and Economy
the resistance. The draught can also be increased by a ‘submarine keel’.
Submarine keels, bar keels and box keels are found on trawlers, tugs and
submarines.
6. Kort nozzles are only used reluctantly on ocean-going ships due to the
danger of floating objects becoming jammed between the propeller and the
inside of the nozzle. ‘Safety nozzles’ have been developed to prevent this.
Kort nozzles also increase the risk of cavitation.
7. Surface-piercing propellers have been found in experiments to have good
efficiency (Strunk, 1986; Miller and Szantyr, 1998), and are advocated for
inland vessels, but no such installation is yet known to be operational.

Sterns for broad, shallow ships

High B/T ratios lead to large waterline run angles. The high resistance asso-
ciated with a broad stern can be reduced by:

1. Small CB and a small CWP . Thus a greater proportion of the ship’s length
can be employed to taper the stern lines.
2. Where a local broadening of the stern is required, the resistance can be
minimized by orientating the flowlines mainly along the buttock lines; i.e.
the buttocks can be made shallow, thus limiting the extent of separated flow.
3. Where the stern is broad, a ‘catamaran stern’ (Fig. 2.33) with two propellers
can be more effective, in terms of resistance and hull efficiency, than the
normal stern form. At the outer surfaces of the catamaran stern the water is
drawn into the propeller through small (if possible) waterline angles. The
water between the propellers is led largely along the buttock lines. Hence it
is important to have a flat buttock in the midship plane. Power requirements
of catamaran sterns differ greatly according to design.

On broad ships, the normal rudder area is no longer sufficient in relation to

the lateral plane area. This is particularly noticeable in the response to helm.
It is advisable to relate the rudder area to the midship section area AM . The
rudder area should be at least 12% of AM (instead of 1.6% of the lateral plane
area). This method of relating to AM can also be applied to fine ships.
In many cases it is advisable to arrange propeller shafts and bossings
converging in the aft direction instead of a parallel arrangement.

Figure 2.33 Catamaran stern. Waterplane at height of propeller shafts

 Lines design 63

2.8 Propeller clearances

The propeller blades revolving regularly past fixed parts of the ship produce
hydrodynamic impulses which are transmitted into the ship’s interior via both
the external shell and the propeller shaft. The pressure impulses decrease
the further the propeller blade tips are from the ship’s hull and rudder. The
‘propeller clearance’ affects:
1. The power requirement.
2. Vibration-excitation of propeller and stern.
3. The propeller diameter and the optimum propeller speed.
4. The fluctuations in torque.
Vibrations may be disturbing to those on board and also cause fatigue fractures.

Clearance sizes
Propeller clearances have increased over time due to vibration problems (more
power installed in lighter structures). High-skew propellers can somewhat
counteract these problems since the impulses from the blade sections at
different radii reach the counter at different times, reducing peaks. The pressure
impulses increase roughly in inverse ratio to the clearance raised to the power
of 1.5. The clearances are measured from the propeller contours as viewed from
the side (Fig. 2.34). Where the propeller post is well rounded, the clearance
should be taken from the idealized stern contour—the point of intersection of
the outer shell tangents. The clearances in Fig. 2.34 are adequate unless special
conditions prevail. A normal cargo ship without heel has a gap of 0.1–0.2 m
between lower blade tip and base-line.

Figure 2.34 Propeller clearances; Det Norske Veritas recommendations for single-screw ships:
a > 0.1D Horizontal to the rudder
b > .0.35 0.02Z/D Horizontal to the propeller post
0.27D for four-bladed propellers
c > .0.24 0.01Z/D Vertical to the counter
0.20D for four-bladed propellers
e > 0.035D Vertical to the heel
64 Ship Design for Efficiency and Economy

Recommendations by Vossnack
The necessary propeller clearance for avoiding vibrations and cavitation is not
a function of the propeller diameter, but depends primarily on the power and
wake field and on a favourable propeller flow. Accordingly for single-screw
ships the propeller clearance to the counter should be at least c ³ 0.1 mm/kW
and the minimum horizontal distance at 0.7R b ³ 0.23 mm/kW.
Recommendations for twin-screw ships
c > .0.3 0.01Z/ Ð D according to Det Norske Veritas
a > 2 Ð .AE /A0 / Ð D/Z according to building regulations for German
naval vessels (BV 41)
Here, Z is the number of propeller blades and AE /A0 the disc area ratio of the
propeller.
These recommendations pay too little attention to important influences such
as ship’s form (angle of run of the waterlines), propulsion power and rpm. The
clearances should therefore be examined particularly closely if construction,
speed or power are unusual in any way. If CB is high in relation to the speed,
or the angle of run of the waterlines large or the sternpost thick, the clearance
should be greater than recommended above.

The disadvantages of large clearances

1. Vertical clearances c and e:
Relatively large vertical clearances limit the propeller diameter reducing
the efficiency or increase the counter and thus the resistance.
2. Horizontal clearances a, b, f:
A prescribed length between perpendiculars makes the waterlines more
obtuse and increases the resistance. Against that, however, where the gap
between propeller post and propeller is increased, the suction diminishes
more than the accompanying wake, and this improves the hull efficiency
H D .1 t//.1 w/. This applies up to a gap of around two propeller
diameters from the propeller post.
3. Distance from rudder a:
Increasing the gap between rudder and propeller can increase or decrease
power requirements. The rudder affects the power requirement in two ways,
both of which are diminished when the gap increases. The result of this
varies according to power and configuration. The effects are:
(a) Fin effect, regaining of rotational energy in the slipstream.
(b) Slipstream turbulence.

Summary: propeller clearances

Large clearances reduce vibrations. Small clearances reduce resistance: this
results in a lower counter and a propeller post shifted aft. With regard to
propulsion:
c and e should be small (to accommodate greater propeller diameter)
a and e should be small (possible regain of rotational energy at rudder
section)
 Lines design 65
b and f should be large (good hull efficiency H )
So the clearances a, c and e should be carefully balanced, since the require-
ments for good vibration characteristics and low required output conflict. Only
a relatively large gap between the propeller forward edge and the propeller
post improves both vibration characteristics and power requirements—despite
an increase in resistance.

Rudder heel
The construction without heel normally found today (i.e. open stern frame)
has considerable advantages over the design with rudder heel:
1. Lower resistance (no heel and dead wood; possibility to position the counter
lower).
2. Fewer surfaces to absorb vibration impulses.
3. Cheaper to build.
If a heel is incorporated after all, rounding off the upper part will decrease
vibration (Fig. 2.35). For stern tunnels, the gap to the outer shell is normally
smaller. Here, the distance between the blade tips and the outer shell should not
change too quickly, i.e. the curvature of the outer shell should be hollow and
the rounding-off radius of the outer shell should be greater than the propeller
radius.

Figure 2.35 Rounded-off upper part of rudder heel

Taking account of the clearances in the lines design

To plot the clearances, the propeller silhouette and the rudder size must be
known. Neither of these is given in the early design stages. Until more precise
information is available, it is advisable to keep to the minimum values for the

Figure 2.36 AP minimum distances between propeller post and aft perpendicular