01-05-2017

UNCONVENTIONAL PROPULSION
DEVICES

• Paddle Wheels
• wheel that carries paddles
• Its periphery and rotates about a transverse
axis
• Paddles accelerate the water and experience a
reactive thrust
• Occasionally used for shallow draught vessels
operating on inland waterways

• Paddle wheels are of two :

• fixed paddles
• feathering paddles

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• large wheel diameter - very low rpm

• increases the size and weight of the
propulsion machinery.
• feathering paddle wheel
• the paddles are pivoted at the periphery of
the wheel and attached by a mechanical
linkage to an eccentric point of the wheel
• This allows the wheel diameter to be
substantially reduced

• run at a much higher speed by a smaller

propulsion plant
• efficiency of a feathering wheel 10 per cent
higher than fixed paddle wheel
• costlier than a fixed paddle wheel
• mechanical linkage system requires a high
degree of maintenance

There are two paddle wheel arrangements

Side wheelers
• paddle wheels are fitted on both sides of the ship
near mid-length
• Because of change in trim and the pitching
– ship have little effect on the immersion of the paddle
wheels
• preferably be a crest of the transverse wave
system generated by the ship at the location of
the paddle wheel
• greater overall breadth and suffer from erratic
steering while rolling in a seaway

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Stern wheelers
• paddle wheel is fitted at the stern
• Stern wheels are used in vessels such as river
towboats
• wide flat sterns in which draught and trim
variations are small

immersion of the paddles in their lowest position

varies from 0.1 to 0.8

• Thrust and Torque of the paddle wheel

proportional to
– width of the paddle for a given height
– at constant wheel diameter
– rpm,
– for a constant ship speed

Other things being equal, the thrust and torque are also
proportional to the immersed area of the wheel
projected on a longitudinal plane

T  VA n D  Q  VA n D 
 f  ,  f  ,
 gD  gD g D 
 g D3  g D   g D4 

• Controllable Pitch Propellers

• controllable pitch propeller, the blades are not
made integral with the boss but are mounted
on separate spindles perpendicular to the
propeller shaft axis

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• advantages over conventional fixed pitch

propellers
• can be utilised in all loading conditions
• provide better acceleration, stopping and
manoeuvring characteristics.
• may be operated at optimum efficiency over a
range of ship speeds and displacements, even
at very low speeds

• Non-reversing propulsion machinery may be

used
• ship may be varied without altering the speed
of the main engine
• controllable pitch propeller is capable of
producing a higher astern thrust and at a
higher efficiency

• Disadvantages
• pitch control mechanism is very complicated
• have a high initial cost, which rises sharply
with diameter.
• Maintenance costs high
• highly vulnerable to damage
• Length and diameter of the propeller boss are
large

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• optimum at the design pitch, does not remain

optimum when the pitch is changed
• blade area has to be limited to enable the pitch
to be reversed
• thicker blade sections to be used
• controllable pitch propeller at its design point is
lower than that of an equivalent fixed pitch
propeller
• limited blade area and thicker blade sections
result in greater cavitation and more noise0

• ducted propellers are of two kinds

• accelerating ducts
– which increase the inflow to the propeller
• decelerating ducts
• which reduce the velocity of the flow through
the propeller.

Ducted propellers have the following advantages

over open propellers
• improved efficiency at high loading
• flow into the propeller and hence reduced
vibration
• smaller effect of loading and speed variations
on efficiency
• improved course stability
• lower vulnerability to damage

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Disadvantages of ducted propellers

• poor astern propulsive performance
• reduced astern manoeuvrability and directional
stability
• greater vulnerability to damage in shallow

loading coefficient CTL below 0.7, a ducted propeller

is less efficient than an equivalent open propeller

• CTL greater than 1.5 the efficiency of a ducted

propeller increases sharply above that of an
open propeller
• Tugs normally have a CTL greater than 3.0
while towing
• by using ducted propellers - 30 per cent
increase in efficiency - bollard pull can be
attained

• large tankers and bulk carriers of limited

draught CTL is often between 2.5 and 5.0
• few cases in which such ships have been fitted
with ducted propellers replacing conventional
propellers
– power between 5 and 12 per cent have been
found

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Ducted propellers are

sometimes used for steering
ships
• The steering duct by itself is
“overbalanced”
• Steering ducted propeller has
to be made smaller than a
fixed one to allow for the
rudderstock coupling on the
top and the support bearing
at the bottom.

Contra-rotating Propellers
• contra-rotating propeller
(set) consists of two
propellers rotating in
opposite directions on
coaxial shafts, one
propeller being placed
close behind the other

• The aim is to reduce the rotational energy

losses in the slipstream
• used in torpedoes in which the
• It cancellation of the torque reactions of the
two propellers
• prevents the torpedo from rotating about its
axis and thereby imparts it directional
stability

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Ship propulsion
• Advantage that the required thrust load is
distributed between two propellers
• efficiency is higher
• propeller diameter can be reduced
• blade area ratio can be reduced

• contra-rotating propeller is less than two single

propellers producing the same total thrust

• It has the disadvantages

• greater weight
• complexity of the gearing
• coaxial shafts
• sealing of the shafting against the ingress of
water from outside is also a major problem

• The aft propeller is made of a slightly smaller

diameter than the forward propeller
– taking the slipstream contraction into account
• pitch is selected to suit the required power
absorption and to ensure that the slipstream
rotation induced by the forward propeller is
cancelled by that induced by the aft propeller
• circulation theory is used in the design of
contra-rotating propellers

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Tandem Propellers
Two propellers mounted on the same shaft and
turning in the same direction
• If there is a higher thrust requirement is
combined with a restricted propeller diameter
– Tandem propellers are a solution to this problem
since the total thrust is divided between the two
propellers
• propellers are usually of the same
diameter and have the same number
of blades.
The two propellers must be designed
taking into account the induced
velocities due to each propeller

• At high loadings, tandem propellers have

higher efficiencies than single propellers and
lower propeller induced vibration.
Tandem propellers
• have higher rotational energy losses,
• greater weight and cost

• Propeller boss cap fins

• A small blades or fins fitted to the propeller boss
cap
• the number of fins being equal to the number of
blades in the propeller.
• These fins weaken the hub vortex,
• thereby eliminating hub vortex
cavitation and the noise due to
the collapse of the hub vortex
cavities on the rudder.
• Propeller boss cap fin propellers have efficiencies
3-7 per cent higher than normal propellers.

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Overlapping Propellers
• advantage of distributing the load between two
propellers and therefore having a higher efficiency
than an equivalent single propeller
• Compared to twin screws
– work in a region of high wake and therefore the hull
efficiency is higher
• appendages required to support the twin screws
are also eliminated and the resistance of the ship
reduced

• mutual interaction between the overlapping

propellers may result in
– increased vibration
– Increased cavitation
• may be necessary to have the two propellers
with different numbers of blades
• If the two shafts run at different speeds there
may be vertical and torsional vibration
• propeller forces with overlapping propellers
are greater than with a single propeller

• longitudinal separation between the propellers has

only a small effect on efficiency
– it may influence ship hull vibration
• optimum transverse separation between the
propellers
– At low separations the wake is higher
– the aft propeller is affected by the slipstream of the
forward propeller to a greater extent
• optimum transverse separation between the centre
lines of overlapping propellers has been found to lie
between 0.6 and 0.8 times the propeller diameter
• improvements in propulsive efficiency of as much 20-
25 per cent can be obtained with overlapping
propellers compared to conventional twin screws.
• Compared to a single screw, the gain in efficiency is
small : 5-8 per cent

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Other Multiple Propeller Arrangements

• additional propeller can be used for steering
• for propulsion when very low ship speeds are required
• increases the velocity of flow in the upper part of the
main propeller disc
– uniform flow
– reducing vibration
– intermittent cavitation.
• disadvantages
– arrangement include the
higher cost
– the complex mechanism
of the additional propeller

• load is shared between two propellers the propeller

efficiency is higher than that of a single propeller
• the diameters of the two propellers one above the
other are limited and high blade areas are required to
avoid cavitation
• small propeller diameters allow higher engine speeds
to be used and hence lighter engines to be fitted
• This arrangement gives better stopping ability to the
ship
• Difficulties
– arranging engines
– shafts one above the other,
– shafts may need to be inclined
to the ship centre line.

• Other Unconventional Screw Propellers

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