Practical approach to calculating the hydrodynamic oscillating loads of a ship propeller under non-uniform wake field

Propellers usually operate in the ship’s stern, where the inflow of the non-uniform wake generates oscillating loads and changes the hydrodynamic performance. Therefore, determination of the forces on propellers and hydrodynamic performance due to a non-uniform wake field are the challenging problems for naval architects and hydrodynamists. The main objectives of the present study are to assess the hydrodynamic performance for a single blade and all the blades. The propeller is a B-series propeller under non-uniform wake field behind the Seiun-Maru (hereafter SM) ship hull. A practical approach is employed to calculate the hydrodynamic oscillating loads of the ship propeller under a non-uniform wake field. Results of the computations on the propeller behind the SM ship, due to a non-uniform wake field, are presented and analyzed using classical mathematical methods over a single cycle. The results show that a variation of thrust with the discussed parameters is the same as that shown for torque, also the blade-frequency of the total force, thrust and torque is an increasing function of radial sections, whereas these parameters decrease with increasing radial blade sections.