2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Model experiments on unconventional ducted propulsor without rotating blades

Research Project

Project/Area Number	24656531
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Naval and maritime engineering
Research Institution	Yokohama National University
Principal Investigator	SUZUKI Kazuo 横浜国立大学, 工学研究院, 教授 (80111699)
Project Period (FY)	2012-04-01 – 2014-03-31
Keywords	推力発生装置 / ダクト / 回転翼 / ボス
Research Abstract	A conventional screw propeller has large rotating blades to get effective thrust force, and the respective blades advance in water as screws. In the present study, an unconventional ducted propulsor is proposed. It has a duct, a rotating boss and vanes with screw surfaces installed on the duct inner surface. Viscous rotational flows caused by rotating motion of boss are curved by the vanes along the duct inner surface. According to this inner flow, suction flows at the front side and accelerated blowing flows at the rear side can be induced. Experimental studies on performances of this new propulsor are carried out. Original models and their improved models based on the various design parameters are investigated. As results of the experiments, thrust forces caused by the new propulsor are confirmed, however, propeller efficiencies are lower than those of conventional screw propeller. For this new type duct-shaped propulsor, more practical improvements will be expected.

(1 results)