Experimental Study on Performance of a Propulsive Nozzle with a Blower Piping System

Abstract

The characteristics of the thrust for ship propulsion equipment directly driven by air compressed by pressure fluctuation in a blower piping system are investigated. The exhaust valve is positioned upon the air ejection hole in the discharge pipe in order to induce the large-scale pressure fluctuation, and the effects of the valve on the pressure in the pipes and the thrust for the propulsive nozzle are examined. The pressure in the pipes decreases immediately after the valve is opened, and it increases just before the valve is closed. The thrust for the propulsive nozzle monotonically increases with increasing number of revolutions and depth. The interfacial wave in the nozzle appears in the frequency of approximately 4Hz, and it is important for the increase of the thrust to synchronize the opening-closing cycle for the exhaust valve with the generation frequency of the interfacial wave. The finite difference lattice Boltzmann method is helpful to investigate the characteristics of the flow in the nozzle.