中國 造 船 暨 輪 機 工程學 刊 第 二 十三 卷 第 四期民國九 十三年 179

Journal 01 Taiwan Society 01 Naνal Architects and Marine Engin eers , Vol.23 , No .4, pp.179-187, 2004

PREDICTION AND MEASUREMENT OF PROPELLER SINGING

R.J. Shyu t C. Y. Hsin and w.J. Liao

Department ofSystems Engineering and Naval Architecture

National Taiwan Ocean University
Keelung, Taiwan 202 , ROC
Keywords: Propeller Singing, Vortex Shedding, Modal Analysis, Radiation Efficiency

ABSTRACT
In this paper, an analysis model is proposed to predict the propeller singing, which generally occurs when the vortex
shedding frequencies at the blade trailing edge and some na仇lTal frequencies of the blade are nearly equal. A set of
vibration and acoustic data taken during a sea trial of a bulk carrier was used to demonstrate this phenomenon. Numerical
analyses, using finite element and boundary element methods, were performed to calculate the natural fr.叫uencies， mode
shapes , and the radiation efficiency of the propeller blade. Together with a theoretical model describing the interaction of
vortex shedding and blade vibration for predicting the response of the blade due to vortex excitation, the possible mode
associating with singing can be deduced. In comparison with measured data, good agreement is shown between the
frequency ofthe predicted mode that show both high response level and high radiation efficiency and the measured singing
frequency.

propeller singing is necessary for ships with strict

INTRODUCTION
Noise from ship propellers may be attributed to
several effects , such as propeller cavitation, turbulence ,
and singing. For the first two causes , the noise is broad-
banded and the latter a pure tone only. Therefore , a tone
noise can be heard once propeller singing occurs. This
tonal frequency ranges usually from 100 to 2 kH z and
has been known for a long time as the earliest reference
dating back to 1911 by Von Kármán [1]. The sound is
sometimes very loud and the associated vibration can be
s仕ong enough to cause fatigue failure on the propeller
blades. The cause of this phenomenon is the frequency of
vortex shedding at the trailing edge coincides with one of
the natural frequencies of the propeller blade. However,
the cure of this problem is normally not difficult and can
generally be avoided by making changes to the trailing
edge of the propeller blade. But in some case , although
the “ anti-singing edge" was applied to the trailing edge ,
the singing phenomenon still exists. Thus , prediction of
acoustic requirements at the preliminary design stage to
avoid singing phenomenon.
Propeller singing can take several forms , ranging
from a deep grunting noise to a high-pitched warbling
noise. References [2-8] contain material relevant to this
phenomenon. The deeper “ grunting" noise is most
commonly associated with larger vessels such as bulk
ca訂間的 ， and in general the faster and smaller the pro-
peller is , the higher the frequency will be. The noise may
be intermittent or may have an apparent period of about
once per revolution [9]. Furthermore , singing usually
occurs only within certain specific revolution ranges not
throughout the whole range of propeller loading. This
phenomenon is called “ lock-in'\In addition , the non-
linearity causes the lock-in range different between
running up and coasting down the revolution speed of
engine shaft [10].
A bulk carrier bui 1t by Taiwan shipyard had been
observed to have a singing propeller. Accelerometers and

t Corresponding author(rjs@sena.ntou.edu.tw)