Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : [in Japanese]
Date : November 08, 2021 - November 10, 2021
A ship's side thruster is a device that can provide thrust to the left or right in relation to the ship's direction of travel through the rotation of a propeller installed in the device, enabling a significant increase in the degree of freedom in ship operation. While most propellers are used for rotation in only one direction, the thruster is a device that can be used for both forward and reverse propeller rotation. And it has a shaft case that supports the propeller cantilevered inside the device. Therefore, it is important to improve the thruster performance based on its internal flow. However, there are few studies that focus on the internal shape of the propeller and other components of the thruster, and the relationship between the internal shape and performance has not been fully clarified. In this study, we focused on propeller solidity and the blade number, which are parameters that greatly affect the performance of thrusters, and investigated their performance characteristics and internal flow using computational fluid dynamics analysis. The performance characteristics and internal flow of the thruster were investigated by numerical fluid dynamics analysis. From the performance characteristics during forward and reverse rotation, the optimum solidities and number of blades were clarified.
