Understanding Design Of Ship Propeller

Ship propeller is used for propulsion in most types of vessels, irrespective of their type
and size. The notion of pushing or propelling a ship forward came into being since the
advent of ships themselves. After the era of those large sails governing the
manoeuvrability and powering the ship, propellers became the most conventional
means of driving the ship in the seas.

We are familiar with seeing propellers fitted behind the ships, but have we ever
contemplated upon the shape, appearance and typical geometry of a propeller? Is there
some physics behind the unusual nature of marine propellers as contrary to the normal
flat-bladed fans we are accustomed to see in our day-to-day lives?

The answer is definitely a YES. The idea behind propelling any vessel at sea is chiefly
because of two reasons:

1. Manoeuvrability and variation of speed

2. Overcoming the resistance encountered by the vessel at sea

 Figure 1. Propeller behind a ship (Courtesy: Wikipedia)

Resistance, as we are aware of is a principal phenomenon inevitable in all bodies

floating in real fluids. As the seawater under all circumstances is adhering to both
viscous effects as well as waves, resistance is substantial. Thus, in todays time, we
cannot envisage large ships and submarines without propellers. Furthermore, newer
and better designs of propellers conceptualised from modern software tools and
advanced experimentation methods aimed for higher efficiency are taking birth to
improve the performance of ships at sea.

Propulsion is a vast pastureland in the field of naval architecture. But before delving
deeper, it is crucial to go through the fundamentals in the geometry of ship propeller.
 Photo by Nightman1965/depositphotos.com
What does a ship propeller looks like?

Propeller Hub or Boss

Analogous to a traditional table fan, a ship propeller has a central boss which is like the
backbone of the entire arrangement. It mates with the rotating shaft which corroborates
with the engine room mechanism. The shaft transmits the power delivered from the
engine (with losses, of course!) and in turn rotates the blades mounted on the hub/boss.
Detailed studies of hydrodynamic behaviour of propellers in different water conditions
have shown that the delivered thrust and thus the resultant efficiency is inversely
proportional to the size/diameter of the boss. Thus, modern designs have evolved with
smaller yet stronger boss so as also to maintain a safety trade-off in terms of strength.
Figure 2 below shows a simple illustration.

Figure 2. Blade mounted on a propeller hub

Propeller Blades
To a commoner, blades are synonymous with the propellers themselves. Blades are
mounted on the hub similar to thin aerofoil sections which can create a hydrodynamic lift
required to produce thrust. Over time blades have evolved into innumerable designs
and shapes foiled, twisted and torqued in a typical manner apt for the vessel at design
speed and displacement.
Irrespective of the aesthetics in the blade design, all propeller have a set of common
features worth knowing. They are:

Blade Face and Back

The ship propeller has two hydrodynamic surfaces: Face and Back. To put it simply, the
cross section of blades coupled with the boss when looked from behind the ship is
called the Face, also known as the palm. The opposite face is called Back.
Figure 3 illustrates better.

Figure 3. Plan of a propeller section showing face and back

Leading Edge and Trailing Edge

To be put simply, there are two edges of a ship propeller blade. The edge which pierces
the water surface first in order of succession is termed as the Leading Edge. Depending
upon the sense of rotation of the propeller (whether it rotates clockwise or
anticlockwise), either of the two edges can become the leading edge. The other edge,
which follows or lags behind the leading edge is termed as the Trailing Edge. The
following figure shows better.
 Figure 4. Leading and Trailing Edges of a blade

Figure 4. Leading and Trailing Edges of a blade

Root and Tip

The point of attachment of the blades with the ship propeller boss or hub is called the
root. Tip is the furthest point of the propeller blade from the root and tapers like a leaf. It
has the least section width. It joins the leading and trailing edges as well as remains the
same for the face and the back.

This is clearly shown in figure 5.

 Figure 5. Root and Tip of a propeller blade

Design of ship propeller Choosing the Suitable Reference

Every physical entity has to be defined with respect to a suitable reference frame. In
propellers too, a uniform Cartesian coordinate system has to define beforehand.
Although the choice of reference in x, y and z planes is arbitrary, a common
Convention is taken such that the x-axis is along the direction of the shaft axis, y-axis is
perpendicular to the shaft axis (sideways) and the z-axis is in-plane to the ship propeller
blade area as shown in the figure.

Figure 6. The Conventional system of Reference

The Concept of Pitch

We are familiar to the simple physics behind screws from our school days. Pitch is
defined as the lateral distance traversed by a fixed point when the screw turns about its
own axis. It is exactly the same in case of propellers. Maybe that is the reason why
these propellers are also alluded to as Screw Propellers!
 Photo Credits: Capt. Sagar

Pitch in case of a propeller is a measure of how much the propeller would drive or
Push forward when it is freely turned about its own axis. So, an obvious question that
may arise in your minds is: Does the propeller actually displace forward?
The answer is no. It is coupled through an intrinsic shafting mechanism to the main
engine. But validating Newtons third law, it generates a reaction force in the wake
region astern which thrusts the vessel forward. That is the reason priming the ship
propeller to such a crucial task in propelling the vessel forward. Thus, pitch may be
denoted as The unit distance moved by a point on a propeller when the propeller
completes one revolution.
 Figure 7. Variation of pitch along the length of the propeller blade

Further analysis of pitch involves much more mathematical paradigms which is not
discussed here. But one crucial aspect to ponder upon is the fact that the distance
calculated from normal pitch calculations is overestimated as compared to the actual
distance travelled by the ship in one propeller revolution. The reason is obvious. There
are unavoidable losses due to resistance (viscous and wave-making) and other factors
such as losses in engine-shafting mechanism, wave-induced events in the slipstream
and cavitation. Following figure depicts the geometric details of pitch.

Understanding Rake and Skew for ship propeller design

Rake

When the propeller is viewed from sideways, we see that the blades of the propeller are
not perpendicular to the surface of the hub. It is tilted at an angle either towards the
fore end or the aft end of the ship. This is termed as Rake. The angle or the inclination
of the rake in its profile is dependent on the vessel design, capacity, speed and other
structural factors.

One of the biggest reasons for the rake is allowing higher clearance between the blades
and the vicinal hull surface. If the blade tip happens to be very close to the hull plating
(which is very prone in case of no or little raked ones), there is a chance of induced
vibration due to ship propeller action. This in obviously not congenial from both
propulsion as well as the structural point of view. For a particular vessel type, there is a
maximum and minimum allowable clearance of the blade tip.

As discussed earlier in the context of reference frame, rake is deviation in X-Z plane
longitudinally in the shaft direction. When the blade is raked forward, that is in the
direction of shaft axis towards fore end, it is called Negative Rake. Conversely, when it
is raked aft, it is called Positive Rake (See Figure).
 Fig 8. Profile of Propeller Blade showing Rake

Skew

We now shift our reference to the Y-Z plane (which appears when we look at the ship
propeller surface from behind). The blade appears to be Skewed, that is, bent or
twisted sideways. Skew of a propeller is clearly shown in the following figure.

Figure 9. (a) No skew (b) Skew in a propeller blade

There are practically two types of skew: Balanced and unbalanced.

The former is skew within lesser limits, where the generator line intersects the
datum line at least two points. These types of ship propellers are known as
moderately skewed.
 On the other hand, unbalanced skew is a higher degree of deviation where the
generator line intersects the reference line at not more than one point
(considerably higher range of skew). They are said to be heavily skewed.

The following figure gives an illustration of the two types of skew.

Figure 10. (a) Balanced (b) Heavily Skewed Propeller Blades

We know well that, the flow in the wake field is highly unsteady and unpredictable
(behind the propeller). This is further modified by propeller action. After years of
experimentation, analysis and sea trials, it was observed that aptly skewing a ship
propeller nullifies or considerably minimises the extent of unsteady hydrodynamic
loading in this flow field. This, indirectly has positive effects in reducing resistance due
to viscous drag effects.

Thus we conclude by saying that in ship design and building process, design of ship
propellers play a catalytic role. Thus the basic knowledge of propellers is useful for
designers to optimise its design aesthetics for various working loads and types of
operations, aimed at achieving maximum efficiency.