Hydrodynamic Performance Analysis of Hull Propellers for Enhancing Flow Efficiency in Water Propulsion Systems
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
This research presents a case study on the design of a Surface Piercing Propeller (SPP) with an optimized geometry for water propulsion systems. The study focuses on a 3-blade propeller featuring a 12-inch diameter and a 22-degree rake angle, specifically engineered for integration with a 16-horsepower engine. Performance evaluations were conducted in an open-water flume to simulate real-world operational conditions. The experimental results demonstrated that the newly designed SPP achieved a maximum propulsion speed of 6 knots (11.112 km/h) when positioned at the water surface. In contrast, at a submersion depth of 30 cm and an approximate shaft angle of 36 degrees, the propeller maintained an average speed of 5.6 knots (10.371 km/h). Furthermore, the optimized propeller design contributed to a 16% reduction in fuel consumption compared to conventional standard propellers available in the market. These findings indicate that the enhancement of the propeller’s rake angle plays a critical role in improving thrust efficiency and energy conservation for flood mitigation missions.
Article Details
References
National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC). “Official Website.” nesdc.go.th. https://www.nesdc.go.th/ (accessed Feb. 24, 2026).
BBC News. “World News and Current Events.” bbc.com. https://www.bbc.com (accessed Feb. 24, 2026).
Thairath Online. “Daily Newspaper and News.” thairath.co.th. https://www.thairath.co.th/newspaper (accessed Feb. 24, 2026).
Office of the National Water Resources (ONWR). “Water Management Systems.” onwr.go.th. https://www.onwr.go.th/ (accessed Feb. 24, 2026).
Royal Thai Navy. “Official Website of the Royal Thai Navy.” navy.mi.th. https://www.navy.mi.th/ (accessed Feb. 24, 2026).
P-Cruise. “Working on Cruise Ships.” p-cruise.com. https://p-cruise.com/article/cruise/working-on-cruise/ (accessed Feb. 24, 2026).
G. Kuiper, The Wageningen Propeller Series. Wageningen, Netherlands: MARIN Publication 92-001, 1992.
H. W. Lerbs, “Moderately loaded propellers with a finite number of blades and an arbitrary distribution of circulation,” SNAME Trans., vol. 60, pp. 73–117, 1952.
T. Brockett, “Minimum pressure envelopes for modified NACA-66 sections with NACA a=0.8 camber and Buships type I and type II sections,” David Taylor Model Basin, Washington, D.C., Rep. 1780, 1966.
J. R. Nielsen, “Program documentation: MAN B&W,” Internal Document, 1992.
W. B. Morgan, V. Silovic, and S. B. Denny, “Propeller lifting-surface corrections,” SNAME Trans., vol. 76, pp. 307–347, 1968.
R. A. Cumming, W. B. Morgan, and R. J. Boswell, “Highly skewed propellers,” SNAME Trans., vol. 80, pp. 98–152, 1972.
D. S. Greeley and J. E. Kerwin, “Numerical methods for propeller design and analysis in steady flow,” SNAME Trans., vol. 90, pp. 415–453, 1982.
A. H. Techet, “Hydrodynamics Reading,” Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Version 3.0, pp. 1–19, 2005.
S. Bal and S. A. Kinnas, “A BEM for the prediction of free surface effects on cavitating hydrofoils,” Comput. Mech., vol. 28, no. 3-4, pp. 260–274, 2002. doi: 10.1007/s00466-001-0281-y
Y. L. Young and S. A. Kinnas, “A BEM for the prediction of unsteady midchord face and/or back propeller cavitation,” J. Fluids Eng., vol. 123, no. 2, pp. 311–320, 2001. doi: 10.1115/1.1362300
G. Vaz and J. Bosschers, “Modeling three dimensional sheet cavitation on marine propellers using a boundary element method,” in Proc. 6th Int. Symp. Cavitation (CAV2006), Wageningen, Netherlands, 2006.
B. Ji, X. W. Luo, R. E. A. Arndt, and Y. L. Wu, “Numerical investigation of unsteady cavitating turbulent flow around a full-scale marine propeller,” in Proc. 9th Int. Conf. Hydrodyn. (ICHD), Shanghai, China, 2010.
N. H. Mostafa and M. A. Boraey, “Numerical and experimental investigation of cavitation in axial pumps,” in Proc. 8th Int. Water Technol. Conf. (IWTC11), Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, 2007, pp. 553–564.
R. Arazgaldi, A. Hajilouy, and B. Farhanieh, “Experimental and numerical investigation of marine propeller cavitation,” Scientia Iranica, vol. 16, no. 6, pp. 525–533, 2009.
A. Konno, T. Wakaba, N. Yamaguchi, and Y. Toda, “On the mechanism of the bursting phenomena of propeller tip vortex cavitation,” J. Mar. Sci. Technol., vol. 6, pp. 181–192, 2002. doi: 10.1007/s007730200005
J. Noosomton and W. Gunnuang, “Case Study on CFD Simulation and Experiment of New Developed Propeller for Trailing Thai Boat,” in Proc. 5th Int. Symp. Mar. Propuls. (SMP’17), Helsinki, Finland, Jun. 2017.
J. Noosomton, “Case Study: Experimental of New Propeller Design 2 Blades Type and Observation Cavitation of Tailing Thai Boat,” in Proc. Seoul Int. Conf. Appl. Sci. Eng. (SICASE2015), Seoul, South Korea, Jun. 2015.
J. Noosomton and J. Charoensuk, “Case Study: Method New Design of Propeller 3 Blades Type on 75 Developed Area and Testing cavitation of Tailing Thai Boat,” in Proc. Int. Conf. Eng. Technol. Appl. Sci. (ICETA-2015), Taipei, Taiwan, Apr. 2015.
J. Noosomton and J. Charoensuk, “Case Study New design 3 Blades Type on 35 Developed Area and Testing cavitation of Tailing Thai Boat,” in Proc. 3rd Int. Conf. Ind. Appl. Eng. (ICIAE2015), Kitakyushu, Japan, Mar. 2015. doi: 10.12792/iciae2015.042
J. Noosomton and J. Charoensuk, “The New Propeller design 3 Blades Type on 18° Skew Angle and Testing cavitation of Tailing Thai Boat,” in Proc. Annu. Conf. Eng. Inf. Technol. (ACEAIT), Osaka, Japan, Mar. 2015.
J. Noosomton and J. Charoensuk, “Performance Design and Testing of Propeller for Shallow-Fishery and Tailing Thai Boat: 2-blade type Part (2): A method for optimum cavitation of ship propeller [AMM-1037],” in Proc. 4th TSME Int. Conf. Mech. Eng. (TSME-ICoME), Pattaya, Thailand, Oct. 2013.
J. Noosomton and J. Charoensuk, “Propeller Design and Finding of Match-Point for Shallow-Fishery and Tailing Thai Boat: 3-Blade Type [AMM-1036],” in Proc. 4th TSME Int. Conf. Mech. Eng. (TSME-ICoME), Pattaya, Thailand, Oct. 2013.
N. Olofsson, “Force and flow characteristics of a partially submerged propeller,” Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Chalmers Univ. Technol., Gothenburg, Sweden, 1996.
M. Ferrando, S. Gaggero, and C. Podenzana-Bonvino, “Surface piercing propellers: A numerical and experimental study on a series of models,” in Proc. 24th ONR Symp. Naval Hydrodynamics, Fukuoka, Japan, 2002, pp. 1–15.
Y. L. Young and W. L. Kinnas, “Numerical modeling of supercavitating and surface-piercing propellers,” J. Ship Res., vol. 47, no. 4, pp. 302–313, Dec. 2003.
