Unsteady Internal Flow and Thrust Measurement of Side Thruster

Abstract

Side thrusters are used for cruisers, ferries, fishing boats and so on. The lateral movement of the ship becomes possible by the thruster and the direction of the movement is reversed by changing the rotational direction of the rotor. The flow conditions of the bidirectional flow of the side thrusters are different each other because of the vertical shaft case and it influences the performance, noise and vibration of the thruster. Therefore, the influences of the propeller pitch, solidity and blade number are investigated as a fundamental research of the side thruster in this research and the unsteady internal flow conditions is investigated by URANS. The thrust measurement equipment is established and the thrust is measured and visualization results of the water surface while the thruster working are reported in this paper.