Understanding Propellers: Types and Dynamics
Understanding Propellers: Types and Dynamics
Rotating the Hamilton Standard 54H60 propeller on a US Navy EP-3E Orion's number four
engine as part of pre-flight checks
A propeller is a type of fan which transmits power by converting rotational motion into thrust. A
pressure difference is produced between the forward and rear surfaces of the airfoil-shaped
blade, and air or water is accelerated behind the blade. Propeller dynamics can be modeled by
both Bernoulli's principle and Newton's third law.
Contents
[hide]
1 History
2 Aviation
3 Marine
o 3.1 Additional designs
4 See also
o 4.1 Propeller phenomena
5 Notes
6 External links
[edit] History
Ship propeller from 1843. Designed by C F Wahlgren based on one of John Ericsson propellers.
It was fitted to the steam ship s/s Flygfisken built at the Motala dockyard.
The principle employed in using a screw propeller is used in sculling. It is part of the skill of
propelling a Venetian gondola but was used in a less refined way in other parts of Europe and
probably elsewhere. For example, propelling a canoe with a single paddle using a "j-stroke"
involves a related but not identical technique. In China, sculling, called "lu", was also used by
the 3rd century AD.
In sculling, a single blade is moved through an arc, from side to side taking care to keep
presenting the blade to the water at the effective angle. The innovation introduced with the screw
propeller was the extension of that arc through more than 360° by attaching the blade to a
rotating shaft. Propellers can have a single blade, but in practice there are nearly always more
than one so as to balance the forces involved.
The origin of the actual screw propeller starts with Archimedes, who used a screw to lift water
for irrigation and bailing boats, so famously that it became known as Archimedes' screw. It was
probably an application of spiral movement in space (spirals were a special study of Archimedes)
to a hollow segmented water-wheel used for irrigation by Egyptians for centuries. Leonardo da
Vinci adopted the principle to drive his theoretical helicopter, sketches of which involved a large
canvas screw overhead.
In 1784, J. P. Paucton proposed a gyrocopter-like aircraft using similar screws for both lift and
propulsion. At about the same time, James Watt proposed using screws to propel boats, although
he did not use them for his steam engines. This was not his own invention, though; Toogood and
Hays had patented it a century earlier, and it had become an uncommon use as a means of
propelling boats since that time.
By 1827, Austrian-Czech constructor Josef Ressel had invented a screw propeller which had
multiple blades fastened around a conical base; this new method of propulsion allowed steam
ships to travel at much greater speeds without using sails thereby making ocean travel faster
(first tests with the Austro-Hungarian Navy[citation needed]). Propellers remained extremely inefficient
and little-utilized until 1835, when Francis Pettit Smith discovered a new way of building
propellers. Up to that time, propellers were literally screws, of considerable length. But during
the testing of a boat propelled by one, the screw snapped off, leaving a fragment shaped much
like a modern boat propeller. The boat moved faster with the broken propeller.[1]At about the
same time, Frédéric Sauvage and John Ericsson applied for patents on vaguely similar, although
less efficient shortened-screw propellers, leading to an apparently permanent controversy as to
who the official inventor is among those three men. Ericsson became widely famous when he
built the Monitor, an armoured battleship that in 1862 fought the Confederate States’ Virginia in
an American Civil War sea battle.
The first screw propeller to be powered by a gasoline engine, fitted to a small boat (now known
as a powerboat) was installed by Frederick Lanchester, also from Birmingham. This was tested
in Oxford. The first 'real-world' use of a propeller was by David Bushnell, who used hand-
powered screw propellers to navigate his submarine "Turtle" in 1776.
The superiority of screw against paddles was taken up by navies. Trials with Smith's SS
Archimedes, the first steam driven screw, led to the famous tug-of-war competition in 1845
between the screw-driven HMS Rattler and the paddle steamer HMS Alecto; the former pulling
the latter backward.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, several theories were developed. The momentum
theory or Disk actuator theory—a theory describing a mathematical model of an ideal propeller
—was developed by W.J.M. Rankine (1865), Alfred George Greenhill (1888) and R.E. Froude
(1889). The propeller is modeled as an infinitely thin disc, inducing a constant velocity along the
axis of rotation. This disc creates a flow around the propeller. Under certain mathematical
premises of the fluid, there can be extracted a mathematical connection between power, radius of
the propeller, torque and induced velocity. Friction is not included.
The blade element theory (BET) is a mathematical process originally designed by William
Froude (1878), David W. Taylor (1893) and Stefan Drzewiecki to determine the behavior of
propellers. It involves breaking an airfoil down into several small parts then determining the
forces on them. These forces are then converted into accelerations, which can be integrated into
velocities and positions.
A World War I wooden aircraft propeller on a workbench.
The twisted airfoil (aerofoil) shape of modern aircraft propellers was pioneered by the Wright
brothers. While both the blade element theory and the momentum theory had their supporters,
the Wright brothers were able to combine both theories. They found that a propeller is essentially
the same as a wing and so were able to use data collated from their earlier wind tunnel
experiments on wings. They also found that the relative angle of attack from the forward
movement of the aircraft was different for all points along the length of the blade, thus it was
necessary to introduce a twist along its length. Their original propeller blades are only about 5%
less efficient than the modern equivalent, some 100 years later.[2]
Alberto Santos Dumont was another early pioneer, having designed propellers before the Wright
Brothers (albeit not as efficient) for his airships. He applied the knowledge he gained from
experiences with airships to make a propeller with a steel shaft and aluminium blades for his 14
bis biplane. Some of his designs used a bent aluminium sheet for blades, thus creating an airfoil
shape. These are heavily undercambered because of this and combined with the lack of a
lengthwise twist made them less efficient than the Wright propellers. Even so, this was perhaps
the first use of aluminium in the construction of an airscrew.
[edit] Aviation
Main article: Propeller (aircraft)
Aircraft propellers convert rotary motion from piston engines or turboprops to provide
propulsive force. They may be fixed or variable pitch. Early aircraft propellers were carved by
hand from solid or laminated wood with later propellers being constructed from metal. The most
modern propeller designs use high-technology composite materials.
[edit] Marine
Marine propeller nomenclature
1) Trailing edge 6) Leading edge
2) Face 7) Back
3) Fillet area 8) Propeller shaft
4) Hub or Boss 9) Stern tube bearing
5) Hub or Boss Cap 10) Stern tube
A propeller is the most common propulsor on ships, imparting momentum to a fluid which
causes a force to act on the ship.
The ideal efficiency of any size propeller (free-tip) is that of an actuator disc in an ideal fluid. An
actual marine propeller is made up of sections of helicoidal surfaces which act together
'screwing' through the water (hence the common reference to marine propellers as "screws").
Three, four, or five blades are most common in marine propellers, although designs which are
intended to operate at reduced noise will have more blades. The blades are attached to a boss
(hub), which should be as small as the needs of strength allow - with fixed pitch propellers the
blades and boss are usually a single casting.
An alternative design is the controllable pitch propeller (CPP, or CRP for controllable-reversible
pitch), where the blades are rotated normal to the drive shaft by additional machinery - usually
hydraulics - at the hub and control linkages running down the shaft. This allows the drive
machinery to operate at a constant speed while the propeller loading is changed to match
operating conditions. It also eliminates the need for a reversing gear and allows for more rapid
change to thrust, as the revolutions are constant. This type of propeller is most common on ships
such as tugs[citation needed] where there can be enormous differences in propeller loading when
towing compared to running free, a change which could cause conventional propellers to lock up
as insufficient torque is generated. The downsides of a CPP/CRP include: the large hub which
decreases the torque required to cause cavitation, the mechanical complexity which limits
transmission power and the extra blade shaping requirements forced upon the propeller designer.
For smaller motors there are self-pitching propellers. The blades freely move through an entire
circle on an axis at right angles to the shaft. This allows hydrodynamic and centrifugal forces to
'set' the angle the blades reach and so the pitch of the propeller.
A propeller that turns clockwise to produce forward thrust, when viewed from aft, is called right-
handed. One that turns anticlockwise is said to be left-handed. Larger vessels often have twin
screws to reduce heeling torque, counter-rotating propellers, the starboard screw is usually right-
handed and the port left-handed, this is called outward turning. The opposite case is called
inward turning. Another possibility is contra-rotating propellers, where two propellers rotate in
opposing directions on a single shaft, or on separate shafts on nearly the same axis. One example
of the latter is the CRP Azipod by the ABB Group. Contra-rotating propellers offer increased
efficiency by capturing the energy lost in the tangential velocities imparted to the fluid by the
forward propeller (known as "propeller swirl"). The flow field behind the aft propeller of a
contra-rotating set has very little "swirl", and this reduction in energy loss is seen as an increased
efficiency of the aft propeller.
The blade outline is defined either by a projection on a plane normal to the propeller shaft
(projected outline) or by setting the circumferential chord across the blade at a given radius
against radius (developed outline). The outline is usually symmetrical about a given radial line
termed the median. If the median is curved back relative to the direction of rotation the propeller
is said to have skew back. The skew is expressed in terms of circumferential displacement at the
blade tips. If the blade face in profile is not normal to the axis it is termed raked, expressed as a
percentage of total diameter.
Each blade's pitch and thickness varies with radius, early blades had a flat face and an arced back
(sometimes called a circular back as the arc was part of a circle), modern propeller blades have
aerofoil sections. The camber line is the line through the mid-thickness of a single blade. The
camber is the maximum difference between the camber line and the chord joining the trailing
and leading edges. The camber is expressed as a percentage of the chord.
The radius of maximum thickness is usually forward of the mid-chord point with the blades
thinning to a minimum at the tips. The thickness is set by the demands of strength and the ratio
of thickness to total diameter is called blade thickness fraction.
The ratio of pitch to diameter is called pitch ratio. Due to the complexities of modern propellers
a nominal pitch is given, usually a radius of 70% of the total is used.
Blade area is given as a ratio of the total area of the propeller disc, either as developed blade area
ratio or projected blade area ratio.
Most propellers have their axis of rotation parallel to the fluid flow. There have however been
some attempts to power vehicles with the same principles behind vertical axis wind turbines,
where the rotation is perpendicular to fluid flow. Most attempts have been unsuccessful. Blades
that can vary their angle of attack during rotation have aerodynamics similar to flapping flight.
Flapping flight is still poorly understood and almost never seriously used in engineering because
of the strong coupling of lift, thrust and control forces.
The fanwing is one of the few types that has actually flown. It takes advantage of the trailing
edge of an airfoil to help encourage the circulation necessary for lift.
The Voith-Schneider propeller pictured below is another successful example, operating in water.
James Watt of Scotland is generally credited with applying the first screw propeller to an engine,
an early steam engine, beginning the use of an hydrodynamic screw for propulsion.
Mechanical ship propulsion began with the steam ship. The first successful ship of this type is a
matter of debate; candidate inventors of the 18th century include William Symington, the
Marquis de Jouffroy, John Fitch and Robert Fulton, however William Symington's ship the
Charlotte Dundas is regarded as the world's "first practical steamboat". Paddlewheels as the
main motive source became standard on these early vessels (see Paddle steamer). Robert Fulton
had tested, and rejected, the screw propeller.
Sketch of hand-cranked vertical and horizontal screws used in Bushnell's Turtle, 1775
The screw (as opposed to paddlewheels) was introduced in the latter half of the 18th century.
David Bushnell's invention of the submarine (Turtle) in 1775 used hand-powered screws for
vertical and horizontal propulsion. The Bohemian engineer Josef Ressel designed and patented
the first practicable screw propeller in 1827. Francis Pettit Smith tested a similar one in 1836. In
1839, John Ericsson introduced practical screw propulsion into the United States. Mixed paddle
and propeller designs were still being used at this time (vide the 1858 SS Great Eastern).
In 1848 the British Admiralty held a tug of war contest between a propeller driven ship, Rattler,
and a paddle wheel ship, Alecto. Rattler won, towing Alecto astern at 2.5 knots (4.6 km/h), but it
was not until the early 20th century paddle propelled vessels were entirely superseded. The
screw propeller replaced the paddles owing to its greater efficiency, compactness, less complex
power transmission system, and reduced susceptibility to damage (especially in battle)
Voith-Schneider propeller
Initial designs owed much to the ordinary screw from which their name derived - early propellers
consisted of only two blades and matched in profile the length of a single screw rotation. This
design was common, but inventors endlessly experimented with different profiles and greater
numbers of blades. The propeller screw design stabilized by the 1880s.
In the early days of steam power for ships, when both paddle wheels and screws were in use,
ships were often characterized by their type of propellers, leading to terms like screw steamer or
screw sloop.
Propellers are referred to as "lift" devices, while paddles are "drag" devices.
Cavitation can occur if an attempt is made to transmit too much power through the screw, or if
the propeller is operating at a very high speed. Cavitation can occur in many ways on a propeller.
The two most common types of propeller cavitation are suction side surface cavitation and tip
vortex cavitation.
Suction side surface cavitation forms when the propeller is operating at high rotational speeds or
under heavy load (high blade lift coefficient). The pressure on the upstream surface of the blade
(the "suction side") can drop below the vapour pressure of the water, resulting in the formation
of a pocket of vapour. Under such conditions, the change in pressure between the downstream
surface of the blade (the "pressure side") and the suction side is limited, and eventually reduced
as the extent of cavitation is increased. When most of the blade surface is covered by cavitation,
the pressure difference between the pressure side and suction side of the blade drops
considerably, and thrust produced by the propeller drops. This condition is called "thrust
breakdown". This effect wastes energy, makes the propeller "noisy" as the vapour bubbles
collapse, and most seriously, erodes the screw's surface due to localized shock waves against the
blade surface.
Tip vortex cavitation is caused by the extremely low pressures formed at the core of the tip
vortex. The tip vortex is caused by fluid wrapping around the tip of the propeller; from the
pressure side to the suction side. This video demonstrates tip vortex cavitation well. Tip vortex
cavitation typically occurs before suction side surface cavitation and is less damaging to the
blade, since this type of cavitation doesn't collapse on the blade, but some distance downstream.
Cavitation can be used as an advantage in design of very high performance propellers, in form of
the supercavitating propeller. In this case, the blade section is designed such that the pressure
side stays wetted while the suction side is completely covered by cavitation vapor. Because the
suction side is covered with vapor instead of water it encounters very low viscous friction,
making the supercavitating (SC) propeller comparably efficient at high speed. The shaping of SC
blade sections however, make it inefficient at low speeds, when the suction side of the blade is
wetted. (See also fluid dynamics).
A similar, but quite separate issue, is ventilation, which occurs when a propeller operating near
the surface draws air into the blades, causing a similar loss of power and shaft vibration, but
without the related potential blade surface damage caused by cavitation. Both effects can be
mitigated by increasing the submerged depth of the propeller: cavitation is reduced because the
hydrostatic pressure increases the margin to the vapor pressure, and ventilation because it is
further from surface waves and other air pockets that might be drawn into the slipstream.
The force has two parts - that normal to the direction of flow is lift (L) and that in the direction of
flow is drag (D). Both are expressed non-dimensionally as:
and
Each coefficient is a function of the angle of attack and Reynolds' number. As the angle of attack
increases lift rises rapidly from the no lift angle before slowing its increase and then decreasing,
with a sharp drop as the stall angle is reached and flow is disrupted. Drag rises slowly at first and
as the rate of increase in lift falls and the angle of attack increases drag increases more sharply.
For a given strength of circulation (τ), Lift = L = ρVτ. The effect of the flow over and the
circulation around the aerofoil is to reduce the velocity over the face and increase it over the
back of the blade. If the reduction in pressure is too much in relation to the ambient pressure of
the fluid, cavitation occurs, bubbles form in the low pressure area and are moved towards the
blade's trailing edge where they collapse as the pressure increases, this reduces propeller
efficiency and increases noise. The forces generated by the bubble collapse can cause permanent
damage to the surfaces of the blade.
Taking an arbitrary radial section of a blade at r, if revolutions are N then the rotational velocity
is . If the blade was a complete screw it would advance through a solid at the rate of NP,
where P is the pitch of the blade. In water the advance speed is rather lower, , the difference,
or slip ratio, is:
The forces of lift and drag on the blade, dA, where force normal to the surface is dL:
where:
where:
As ,
From this total thrust can be obtained by integrating this expression along the blade. The
transverse force is found in a similar manner:
showing that the blade efficiency is determined by its momentum and its qualities in the form of
angles and , where is the ratio of the drag and lift coefficients.
This analysis is simplified and ignores a number of significant factors including interference
between the blades and the influence of tip vortices.
The thrust, T, and torque, Q, depend on the propeller's diameter, D, revolutions, N, and rate of
advance, Va, together with the character of the fluid in which the propeller is operating and
gravity. These factors create the following non-dimensional relationship:
where f1 is a function of the advance coefficient, f2 is a function of the Reynolds' number, and f3
is a function of the Froude number. Both f2 and f3 are likely to be small in comparison to f1 under
normal operating conditions, so the expression can be reduced to:
For two identical propellers the expression for both will be the same. So with the propellers
T1,T2, and using the same subscripts to indicate each propeller:
Thrust and velocity, at the same Froude number, give thrust power:
For torque:
...
When a propeller is added to a ship its performance is altered; there is the mechanical losses in
the transmission of power; a general increase in total resistance; and the hull also impedes and
renders non-uniform the flow through the propeller. The ratio between a propeller's efficiency
attached to a ship ( ) and in open water ( ) is termed relative rotative efficiency.
The overall propulsive efficiency (an extension of effective power ( )) is developed from the
propulsive coefficient ( ), which is derived from the installed shaft power ( ) modified by the
effective power for the hull with appendages ( ), the propeller's thrust power ( ), and the
relative rotative efficiency.
The terms contained within the brackets are commonly grouped as the quasi-propulsive
coefficient ( , ). The is produced from small-scale experiments and is modified with a
load factor for full size ships.
Wake is the interaction between the ship and the water with its own velocity relative to the ship.
The wake has three parts: the velocity of the water around the hull; the boundary layer between
the water dragged by the hull and the surrounding flow; and the waves created by the movement
of the ship. The first two parts will reduce the velocity of water into the propeller, the third will
either increase or decrease the velocity depending on whether the waves create a crest or trough
at the propeller.
At present, one of the newest and best type of propeller is the controllable pitch propeller. This
propeller has several advantages with ships. These advantages include: the least drag depending
on the speed used, the ability to move the sea vessel backwards, and the ability to use the "vane"-
stance, which gives the least water resistance when not using the propeller (e.g. when the sails
are used instead).
An advanced type of propeller used on German Type 212 submarines is called a skewback
propeller. As in the scimitar blades used on some aircraft, the blade tips of a skewback propeller
are swept back against the direction of rotation. In addition, the blades are tilted rearward along
the longitudinal axis, giving the propeller an overall cup-shaped appearance. This design
preserves thrust efficiency while reducing cavitation, and thus makes for a quiet, stealthy design.
[3]
A modular propeller provides more control over the boats performance. There is no need to
change an entire prop, when there is an opportunity to only change the pitch or the damaged
blades. Being able to adjust pitch will allow for boaters to have better performance while in
different altitudes, water sports, and/or cruising. [4]
[edit] Protection of small engines
For smaller engines, such as outboards, where the propeller is exposed to the risk of collision
with heavy objects, the propeller often includes a device which is designed to fail when over
loaded; the device or the whole propeller is sacrificed so that the more expensive transmission
and engine are not damaged.
Typically in smaller (less than 10 hp/7.5 kW) and older engines, a narrow shear pin through the
drive shaft and propeller hub transmits the power of the engine at normal loads. The pin is
designed to shear when the propeller is put under a load that could damage the engine. After the
pin is sheared the engine is unable to provide propulsive power to the boat until an undamaged
shear pin is fitted.[5]
In larger and more modern engines, a rubber bush transmits the torque of the drive shaft to the
propeller's hub. Under a damaging load the friction of the bush in the hub is overcome and the
rotating propeller slips on the shaft preventing overloading of the engine's components.[6] After
such an event the rubber bush itself may be damaged. If so, it may continue to transmit reduced
power at low revolutions but may provide no power, due to reduced friction, at high revolutions.
Also the rubber bush may perish over time leading to its failure under loads below its designed
failure load.
Whether a rubber bush can be replaced or repaired depends upon the propeller; some cannot.
Some can but need special equipment to insert the oversized bush for an interference fit. Others
can be replaced easily.
In some modern propellers, a hard polymer insert called a drive sleeve replaces the rubber bush.
The splined or other non-circular cross section of the sleeve inserted between the shaft and
propeller hub transmits the engine torque to the propeller, rather than friction. The polymer is
weaker than the components of the propeller and engine so it fails before they do when the
propeller is overloaded.[7] This fails completely under excessive load but can easily be replaced.
Propeller walk
Cavitation
Azimuth thruster
o Azipod
Helix
Impeller
Jet engine
Kitchen rudder
Ducted propeller
o Kort nozzle
o Pump-jet
Paddle steamer
Pleuger rudder
Propulsor
Voith-Schneider
Cleaver
Bow/Stern thruster
Folding propeller
Modular propeller
Balancing machine
Composite materials
[edit] Notes
1. ^ "History and Design of Propellers: Part 1". the [Link]. 2004-02-07.
[Link] Retrieved 2007-09-03.
"Francis Petit Smith accidentally discovered the advantages of a "shortened"
Archimedean screw. Originally, his wooden propeller design had two complete turns
(what we might call "double-pitch"). Nevertheless, following an accident in a canal, his
boat immediately gained speed after half of his blade broke away."
2. ^ Ash, Robert L; Britcher, Colin P; Hyde, Kenneth W. "prop-Wrights: How two brothers
from Dayton added a new twist to airplane propulsion". Mechanical Engineering - 100
years of flight. [Link]
Retrieved 2007-09-03.
3. ^ Illustrations of skewback propellers
4. ^ [Link]
18
5. ^ [Link]
%22shear+pin
%22+propeller&source=bl&ots=wPgCubQn8z&sig=oLR0yI9Ld10EwQtJMZboDKY9of
M&hl=en&ei=IV5YSoz6AousjAeb86nBBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=
1 The Outboard Boater's Handbook By David R. Getchell, Getchell David
6. ^ [Link]
%22rubber+bush
%22+propeller&source=bl&ots=Jl1kApYmcj&sig=jBva0ozNGj4E7SkdaUgRLJDsdLk&
hl=en&ei=_EZYSuPdI5GwjAeJj7jBBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5
Admiralty Manual of Seamanship
7. ^ [Link] US Patent 5484264 - Torsionally
twisting propeller drive sleeve and adapter
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