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Rudder Interaction
M. Felli1, G. Guj2, F. Di Felice1, G. Aloisio1
1
I.N.S.E.A.N., Via di Vallerano 139, 00128 Rome, Italy
Tel. +39 06 50299240, Fax. +39 06 5070619
2
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Roma Tre University, Via della Vasca Navale 79, 00146 Rome, Italy
e-mail: m.felli@insean.it
In the present study an experimental analysis of the propeller-rudder interaction has been performed in a cavitation
tunnel. The experiments simulated the condition of a rudder operation aft of a propeller but without the influence of the
hull.
The activity has been performed through dynamometric measurements, LDV phase sampling techniques and flow
visualizations with an high speed camera.
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and Turnock (1992) investigated experimentally the having a rectangular planform and standard
effect of the propeller slipstream on the rudder symmetrical sections with NACA 0020 profiles has
performance by dynamometric measurements in a wind been used.
tunnel. Kracht (1992) studied the ship-propeller-rudder Models are designed as modular objects. This means
interaction measuring lift, drag and cavitation that they are built in separated parts that can be
characteristics for different rudder configurations. assembled in different ways to realize different
Propeller-rudder interaction has been theoretically geometries.
investigated by Tsakonas et al. (1975), Moriyama and Rudder has been fixed to the top horizontal window of
Yamazaki (1981), Zhu and Dong (1986), Kerwin et al. the tunnel with the leading edge at r=R from the
(2003), Li (1994), Shen et al. (1997). The present study propeller disk plane and a 50mm offset from the
describes the results of an experimental analysis of the propeller axis (figure 1). This arrangement has been to
flow field around a propeller-rudder configuration, by minimize the perturbation induced by the hub vortex.
means of dynamometric measurements, LDV phase Overall details of the rudder are summarized in Table I,
sampling techniques and flow visualizations with an considering the propeller diameter D as reference
high speed CMOS camera. length.
Propeller
The E779A model propeller has been used for the tests. Figure 1. Overview of the propeller-rudder installation
This is a four blades Wageningen modified type model
with a diameter of 272mm and an uniform pitch
distribution. This choice has been motivated by the fact LDV measurements
that a thorough experimentally-based knowledge of Flow velocity has been measured by means of a two
such model propeller is available through a dataset that component back scatter LDV system, which consists of
collects hydrodynamics and hydroacoustics a 6W Argon Laser, a 2 component underwater fiber
measurements performed at the Italian Navy Cavitation optic probe, a 40 MHz Bragg cell for the velocity
Tunnel (CEIMM) over the last years. versus ambiguity removal and a TSI IFA 655 Doppler
Further details of the propeller are summarized in processor.
Table I. The three dimensional velocity field measurements
have been performed in two separate steps rotating the
experiment of 90. More specifically, in view of the
Number of blades 4 axisymmetry of the propeller wake, two configurations
Diameter (mm) 272 with the rudder fixed on the top and side window of the
Pitch-diameter ratio 1.1
Boss diameter max (mm) 45.5
test section has been used to resolve the U-W and the
Rake (deg) 4 3 U-V velocity components respectively.
Developed area-disk area ratio 0.688 A rotary 7200 pulse/revolution encoder supplied the
actual propeller position with an angular accuracy of
0.05. The encoder signals have been processed by a
synchroniser which provided the digital signal of the
Rudder propeller position to the TSI RMR (Rotating Machine
The choice of the rudder geometry has been oriented to Resolver).
simple shapes in order to limit as much as possible The correspondence between the randomly acquired
complex fluiddynamics features that make velocity bursts and the propeller angular position has
measurements difficult to be understood. Moreover, been carried out by using phase sampling techniques.
simple geometries are fully adequate to provide CFD The adopted procedure has been the Tracking
codes validation datasets. Thus, an all movable rudder
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Triggering Technique (TTT) because it allows the Flow Visualizations of the propeller rudder
acquisition process to be efficient and fast. interaction
More information about such a technique can be found The analysis of flow visualizations at high frame rate
in Felli et al. (2000). The LDV probe has been set up reveals interesting details of the complex interaction
on a computer controlled traversing system which between the propeller slipstream and the rudder.
allows to get a displacement accuracy of 0.01mm in all When the tip vortex filament approaches the leading
the directions and to achieve an high automation of the edge of the rudder an inviscid interaction occurs: the
LDV system. The seeding particles size and effect of potential bumping due to the elliptical
concentration has been controlled in the facility: the nature of the flow field deforms progressively the tip
water has been filtered before the measurements (3m vortex trajectory as it moves toward the appendage
low-pass) and seeded with 10m silver hollow coated leading edge.
glass particles. The tunnel water has been seeded with
10m silver hollow coated glass particles. Water
seeding has performed at the start of the tests, because
it has been experienced that seed particles density
remains almost constant for a long time in the facility.
Data acquisition has been accomplished by using a low
end personal computer, while the post processing
analysis, requiring several Gbytes of data storage and
computational resources, has been performed on a
workstation.
Dynamometric measurements
A five-component strain gauge Kempfs & Remmers
Figure 2. Tip vortex-rudder interaction. Deflection of the tip
balance has been used to measure forces and moments
vortex on the rotation up (yellow) and down (red) side for
exerted on the rudder. Maximum design loads and t=0.0005 sec (top, left), t=0.0015 sec (top, right), t=0.0025
moments for the dynamometer are as follows: 6000 N sec (mid, left), t=0.007 sec (mid, right), t=0.008 sec (bottom,
for lift and drag, 500Nm for torque, 1000Nm for the left), t=0.009 sec (bottom, right)
moments about the x and the y axes.
The vortical filaments are deflected in the direction
TEST CONDITIONS away from the center of rotation (figure 2), as can be
Velocity tests have been carried with a free stream easily represented using the image vortex model at the
velocity of 5 m/s and a propeller revolution speed of 25 rudder leading edge (figure 3, left). Looking from
rps, corresponding to an advance ratio J of 0.88. Based below (figure 5) the vortex shape on the rotation down
on the freestream velocity of 5 m/s and the rudder (up) region has a kink in the starboard (port) side of the
chord, the nominal Reynolds number has been appendage just before coming into close contact with
therefore around 1.36106. It should be added that the rudder leading edge. The potential bumping of
velocities induced by the propeller led to an effective the rudder perturbs also the hub vortex trajectory, in
Reynolds of 1.63106. spite of the 50mm offset from the appendage. This is
clearly shown in figure 5: the hub vortex filament is
EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS downward moved and deformed to a shape which
resembles that of the rudder profiles. The former effect
can be justified using the image vortex model as shown
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in figure 3. As a consequence of the contact with resolved by the visualizations as a cavitating thread
rudder leading edge, a substantial bending of the tip that suddenly appears to connect the previously severed
vortex occurs, causing the stretching of the filament ends. The vorticity shed from the rudder trailing edge
and an evident reduction of the core radius. seems to play a role in this mechanism, as pointed out
by Johnston et al. (1993).
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Figure 5. Chordwise evolution of the propeller tip vortices at t=0.0005 sec (top, left), t=0.0055 sec (top, right), t=0.0105 sec (bottom,
left), t=0.00155 sec (bottom, right)
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gradient tensor (Jeong and Hussain, 1995). The displacement of the tip vortex filament induced by the
analysis of the vorticity field and the turbulent wake is interaction with the image vortex on the appendage
a suitable way to measure the spanwise misalignement starboard (port) side is less than that in the rotation up
of the tip vortex filaments at the rudder trailing edge. side.
As pointed out by the analysis of the visualizations, the
spanwise shear of the tip vortices is not symmetrical
and appears larger on the propeller rotation up region
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Figure 11 shows the angular evolution for the turbulent
kinetic energy. The analysis of the Turbulent Kinetic
Energy (TKE) allows to resolve the trace of the rudder
and the blades wake, pointing out the wake
deformation due to the combined action of the tip and
hub vortex as well as to their interaction with the
rudder. More specifically a different mechanism acts in
the downstream evolution of the tip and hub vortices
and the blade wake. The former is an increase of the
turbulence trace of the tip and hub vortices, due to the
combined effect of the rudder induced perturbation and
the incoming instability of the propeller slipstream, the
latter is a process of progressive deformation, diffusion
and dissipation of the turbulent trace of the blade wake,
whose energy content is distributed on the small scale
eddies. The interaction between the blade tip vortex
and the rudder, is well described by the evolution of the
turbulence field, showing the strong deformation when
it crosses the rudder surface.
CONCLUSIONS
The present study describes the results of an
experimental analysis of the flow field around a
propeller-rudder configuration, performed by means of
flow visualizations with an high speed camera and
LDV phase sampling measurements. The effects of the
potential bumping of the rudder on the propeller
structures, the double helix break down of the vortex
filaments while moving chordwise, the tip vortex
rejoining at the trailing edge, the chordwise and
spanwise misalignement between the vertical filaments
on the face and the back surface of the appendage have
been pointed out by the flow visualizations. The
adoption of LDV phase sampling techniques allowed
an effective reconstruction of the propeller wake
evolution and its interaction with the rudder. The
analysis of the axial and horizontal components of the
velocity at the rudder leading edge as well as the
distribution of the trailing vorticity in the downstream
plane provides information on both the hydrodynamic
loading conditions along the appendage span and the
angular evolution of the side force and the bending
moment.
AKNOWLEGMENTS
The present work has been supported by the European Figure 10. Angular evolution of the axial component of
Community in the frame of the VIRTUE Research the vorticity for =0 (top), =30 (mid) and =60
Project. (bottom)
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6. Shen YT, Jiang CW, Remmers KD,. Effect
of ship hull and propeller on rudder
cavitation. Journal of Ship Research. 41-4.
1997
7. Shen YT, Remmers KD, Jiang CW. Effect of
ship hull and propeller on rudder cavitation.
Journal of Ship Research. 41-3. 1997
8. Stierman EJ. The influence of the rudder on
the propulsive performance of ships.
International Shipbuilding Progress. 36. 1989.
9. Tsakonas, S, Jacobs WR, Ali MR.
Application of the unsteady lifting surface
theory to the study of propeller rudder
interaction. Journal of Ship Research. 19-2.
1975.
10. Zhu ZL, Dong ST. A theoretical method for
predicting the hydrodynamic performances of
propeller-rudder interaction. International
Symposium on propeller and cavitation.
Wuxi. China.1986.
11. Johnston RT, Sullivan JP. Unsteady wind
surface pressures in the wake of a propeller
Journal of Aircraft. Vol.30, N.5. 1993
12. Jeong J, Hussain F. On the identification of a
vortex Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 285:69-
94. 1995
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