Cavitation research and ship propeller design

Abstract

The role of cavitation research in the design of ship propellers and the influence of research on propeller design is reviewed. The historical development of research on bubble cavitation is an example of a lack of communication between research and design. Research on sheet cavitation is starting now and simplifications such as two dimensional cavitation are being made. It is argued from observations on propellers that the use of two-dimensional cavitaties is not a proper simplification to investigate sheet cavitation. An illustration is also given of the gap between the assessment of the risk of erosion on propeller models and research on erosion. Finally, the simplifications of tip vortex inception and the problems of the inception speed of propellers are discussed. © 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers.