Abstract ▼ AI-Helper

The effects of free surface on wake behind a rotating propeller were investigated experimentally in a circulating water channel with the variation of water depth. Instantaneous velocity fields were measured using two-frame PIV technique at tow different blade phases and ensemble-averaged to investig...

The effects of free surface on wake behind a rotating propeller were investigated experimentally in a circulating water channel with the variation of water depth. Instantaneous velocity fields were measured using two-frame PIV technique at tow different blade phases and ensemble-averaged to investigate the phase-averaged flow structure in the wake region. For an isolated propeller, the flow behind the propeller is influenced by the propeller rotation and the free surface. The phase-averaged mean velocity fields show that the potential wake and the viscous wake are formed by the boundary layers developed on the blade surfaces. The interaction between the tip vortices and the slipstream causes the oscillating trajectory of tip vortices. Tip vortices are generated periodically and the slipstream contracts in the near-wake region. The presence of free surface affects the wake structure largely, when the water depth is less than 0.6D. The free surface modifies the vortex structure, especially the tip and trailing vortices and flow structure in slipstreams of the propeller wake behind X/D = 0.3.