Experimental investigation of propeller wake velocity field

Amin, Mohammad Asif (2018) Experimental investigation of propeller wake velocity field. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

Propeller wake wash has been used as an operational ice management technique for many years, particularly in managing small and medium sizes ice floes in arctic and sub-arctic regions. Propeller wake wash is a complicated flow with axial, tangential and radial components of velocity. The jet velocity of a wash has a significant component that is directed upwards towards the free surface of the water. The component of the jet interacting with a free surface of water can be used for ice management, and this is of practical interest for the present investigation. The current study is an experiment on the propeller wake velocity field to investigate the influence of factors affecting propeller wake wash. The experiment was done on a steady wake wash, in the absence of ice, to measure fluid velocity components downstream of the propeller. The investigation was done by varying the major factors affecting propeller wake wash, which were: the power delivered by the propeller, the inclination of the propeller, and the depth of submergence of the propeller. The power delivered by the propeller was measured as propeller shaft rotational speed. The response variables of interest were the mean velocity in the wake, the spatial distribution of velocity, and the variability of the wake flow. The experiment was designed by following the Central Composite Design (CCD) of Response Surface methodology, testing at five levels for each of the three factors. All the experimental data, and the results that were analyzed, are presented in an OERC test report (Amin et al., 2017), and in this thesis.

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