A review on the Surface-Piercing Propeller: Challenges and opportunities. (November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Seyyedi, Seyyed Mostafa; Shafaghat, Rouzbeh
• Is Part Of: Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Volume 234:Number 4(2020:Nov.)
• Page Start: 743
• Page End: 770
• Publication Date: 2020-11
• Subjects: SPP -- cavitation tunnel -- hydrodynamic coefficient -- experimental–theoretical study -- towing tank; Marine engineering -- Periodicals; 623.805
• DOI: 10.1177/1475090220906917
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1475-0902

Abstract

The application of surface-piercing propeller (SPP) has been widely used in high-speed crafts due to possessing many favorable features. Due to the information gaps in the design of SPP, researchers have made great efforts to conduct hydrodynamic analysis of these propulsion systems. Despite the previous studies, there is still a considerable shortage in literature. In this article, a comprehensive review has been carried out on the experimental, theoretical, and experimental–theoretical studies in the field of SPP to introduce the strengths, limitations, and gaps in the previous research. The results of previous studies have also been presented in the form of benchmarking tables and statistical figures. Investigations have proved the inability of the numerical methods to simulate SPP. In recent years, the most precise methods of analyzing complex flows around SPP have been the computational fluid dynamics methods. The most suitable computational fluid dynamics method is the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes method. Moreover, despite the heavy costs of experiments, the experimental approach is still the most reliable way of understanding the flow phenomena, studying the time-dependent dynamic behavior of propellers, and determining the hydrodynamic coefficients of thrust and torque. It can also serve to develop the numerical methods for comparing the results and reducing the errors of semi-experimental equations. Therefore, one of the primary objectives of future studies will be the comprehensive experimental analysis of various propeller blade profiles considering the effect of the variations of the trailing edge angle and the effects of the parameters influencing SPP, especially the shaft inclination angle.