Ocean Engineering 110 (2015) 11–17

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Ocean Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/oceaneng

Wake-adapted design of fixed guide vane type energy saving device

for marine propeller
L.X. Hou, C.H. Wang n, A.K. Hu, F.L. Han
School of Shipbuilding Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, No. 145 Nantong Street, NanGang District,Harbin, Heilongjiang Province 150001, PR China

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A wake-adapted design method of downstream fixed guide vanes (FGV) for marine propeller is proposed
Received 3 February 2015 based on propeller vortex theory (PVT) and surface panel method (SPM). The FGV is designed to recover
Accepted 17 September 2015 the slipstream rotational energy of propeller into an additional thrust. The hydrodynamic interaction
Available online 12 October 2015
between the propeller and the FGV is the key point in the combined propulsor design and is considered
Keywords: through induced velocities calculated by SPM. As the guide vanes are fixed and work in nonuniform wake
Propeller field, different blades have significantly different inflow velocities. Therefore, the blades of FGV ought to
Fixed guide vanes be designed independently. The radial circulation distributions of the combined propulsor as well as the
Propeller vortex theory tangential induced velocities in the slipstream are calculated to validate the energy saving principle of
Surface panel method
FGV. The results of design case study indicate that the FGV after propeller can recover the slipstream
Energy saving principle
rotational energy of propeller effectively.
& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
As the world's energy shortage problem gets increasingly ser-
ious and the energy efficiency design index ( EEDI ) for new ship
came into effect on January 1, 2013, reducing fuel consumption
and building green ship not just relate directly to the operating
costs but also help to deal with other risk factors (Osborne, 2012).
Although marine propellers already have high propulsive effi-
ciency, the rotating propeller induces a swirling motion of water,
which is considered as energy loss for ship propulsion (Carlton,
2008). Multi-component propulsors have been devised to recover
the rotational energy, including counter rotating propellers (CRP)
and vane wheel propulsors (Kravitz, 2011; Zondervan et al, 2011;
Güner et al, 2001). Although the concept of these propulsion
configurations is hydrodynamically perfect, the application to full
scale has been limited for one reason or another.
The downstream FGV is a kind of reacting fin. By recovering the
slipstream rotational energy of the propeller, the FGV can produce
an additional thrust by converting the rotating slipstream of the
propeller into axial flow and obtain significant gains in efficiency.
Studies about FGV have been conducted universally. Chinese ship
scientific research center carried out systematic design researches
about FGV after propeller in the 1980s (Zhang and Dong, 1983;
n attack, resulting in undesirable fluctuating in loading. This
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: 07093129@163.com (L.X. Hou),
wangchunhui_heu@163.com (C.H. Wang).
Zhang, 1988; Ma and Zhang, 1989). Designs of the upstream and
downstream FGV were carried out by Glover (1991) using the lifting
line theory and Gaafary and Mosaad (1991) through linearized
lifting surface theory respectively. Lee et al (2014) proposed a novel
energy recovering turbine behind a marine propeller having similar
function to FGV. The difference is that the new device achieves the
energy saving purpose by converting the propeller slipstream
rotational energy to electrical energy. Celik and Güner (2007) have
devoted great effort to the design of downstream FGV. The con-
tracted form of helical vortices is analyzed, and the optimum
number of the stator blades and the axial spacing between the
propeller and the stator are discussed. The significant conclusions
are given through design examples. However, the wake field behind
the ship hull is not considered. As propulsors work behind the ship
hull, having designs about downstream FGV in nonuniform inflow
is necessary for energy saving.
In the present paper, a detailed design method about down-
stream FGV in nonuniform inflow is proposed. A containership is
taken as the research object. The full scale design as well as
unsteady hydrodynamic performance prediction is carried out. A
special procedure for FGV design is established according to the
obviously different local inflow velocities of FGV blades. The
nonuniformity of inflow causes the propeller blade elements to
experience periodic variations in inflow velocity and angle of
unsteady loading produces unsteady forces and moments which
are transmitted through the propeller shafting and bearing and

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2015.09.036
0029-8018/& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
12 L.X. Hou et al. / Ocean Engineering 110 (2015) 11–17

often produce severe vibration and noise. The unsteady hydro- propeller plane can be calculated as:
dynamic performance of the designed combined propulsor is R1
calculated to analyze the influence of FGV on the unsteady forces rua 0ðrÞdr
ua 0 ¼ 0 R 1 ð1Þ
and moments of the propeller. The energy recovery capabilities are 0 rdr
estimated from the radial circulation distributions of the combined
In this equation, ua 0ðr Þ is the circumferential mean of the axial
propulsor and the tangential induced velocities in the slipstream.
induced velocities at r.
This study is of great significance to achieve the energy-saving sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
purpose and provides a deeper understanding as to how the ua 0 þ 1
slipstream rotational energy of propeller is recovered. The results δ¼ ð2Þ
2ua 0 þ 1
of this study will give a meaningful reference for practising pro-
fessional naval architects. The contraction ratio δ of the slipstream at FGV plane is cal-
culated through Eq. (2). The FGV diameter can be determined as
d ¼ δ  D.
2. Basic theory For the geometric design of FGV, the disturbance velocities
from the propeller obtained through SPM need to be circumfer-
2.1. Design theory description entially averaged. So the disturbance velocities are only functions
of the radial coordinate when the axial spacing between the
This study adopts the PVT combined with SPM to have a propeller and the FGV is given. If the slipstream rotational energy
comprehensive research. The SPM used in this paper is based on of propeller is recovered in maximum, the most ideal result should
the velocity potential and adopts hyperboloidal panels. The FGV is be that the tangential induced velocity far downstream of the
considered as a propeller without rotating. The FGV diameter is propeller is zero definitely.
determined through analyzing the propeller slipstream and the tip The determination of circulation distribution is the key point of
radius of FGV is set to equal to the radius of the contracted FGV design. Stokes theorem is used to determine the circulation
propeller slipstream at the FGV plane. The lifting line theory and relationship on the coaxial cylinder of the propeller and the FGV,
the lifting surface theory are used to design the propeller and FGV which are approximated to have infinite blades, namely, the pro-
respectively (Koichi, 2013). peller blade number Z 11 and the FGV blade number Z 21 approach
For the propeller design, the initial design parameters including to infinite. The tangential induced velocity ut ðrÞ far downstream of
diameter, number of blades, thrust needed, rate of rotation, ship the combined propulsor at r can be calculated as:
speed and wake field are given first. The wake used for design
Z 11 Γ 11 ðr Þ þ Z 21 Γ 21 ðr Þ
includes the induced velocities from FGV. Using the given data the ut ðr Þ ¼ ð3Þ
2π r
propeller design is carried out by PVT.
The diameter of the designed FGV ought to be smaller than that where Γ 11 ðr Þ and Γ 21 ðr Þ denote the one blade circulation
of the propeller and be on-line with the slipstream diameter at the distributions of the propeller and the FGV with infinite blades, Z 11
FGV plane. The main purpose is to recover the rotational velocities Γ 11 ðrÞ and Z 21 Γ 21 ðrÞ represent the total circulations of the pro-
induced by the propeller as much as possible within the slip- peller and the FGV at r respectively.
stream, and avoid the additional increasing drag due to the greater If ut ðrÞ  0, there is the equation:
FGV diameter than that of the slipstream as there is nothing to Z 11 Γ 11 ðr Þ þ Z 21 Γ 21 ðr Þ  0 ð4Þ
save outside of the slipstream. What’s more, the impingement
from the propeller tip vortex on the FGV blade can be avoided in For the propeller and FGV with finite blades, there is equation
this way. It is assumed that the slipstream of the propeller is similarly:
already stable and the diameter of the FGV is set equal to the Z 1 Γ 1 ðrÞ þ Z 2 Γ 2 ðrÞ ¼ 0 ð5Þ
diameter of contracted slipstream at the FGV plane, as shown in
Fig. 1, where D and d denote the diameters of the propeller and the Hence:
FGV respectively. Z
According to the theory that the axial induced velocities the
Γ 2 ðrÞ ¼  1 Γ 1 ðrÞ ð6Þ
Z2
propeller has at infinity of the downstream double those at the
where Z 1 , Z 2 are the blade numbers of the propeller and the
propeller plane, the contraction ratio of the slipstream at stable
FGV, Γ 1 ðrÞ, Γ 2 ðrÞ represent one blade circulation distributions of
can be obtained. The mean axial induced velocities ua 0 at the
the propeller and the FGV, respectively.
With the initial design parameters given, the propeller can be
designed and its circulation distribution along the radial direction
can be obtained. Then, the FGV circulation can be determined
through Eq. (6).

2.2. Panel method description

The panel method has been proved to be effective for hydro-

dynamic performance prediction of propeller. Some literatures
have given specific description about the details and fundamentals
of panel method (Hsin, 1990; Kinnas and Fine, 1992). Thus, this
paper only gives a brief description. This method derives from the
Green’s theorem and the velocity potential φp at a fixed point p
located anywhere in the flow field can be expressed as follows:
Z   Z
∂G ∂φ ∂G
4πςφp ¼ φq  G q dS þ Δφ dS ð7Þ
S ∂n ∂n SW ∂n
Fig. 1. Diagram of slipstream contraction.
 L.X. Hou et al. / Ocean Engineering 110 (2015) 11–17 13

where S,Sw represent the propeller surface and the wake sur- 3. Wake analysis
face respectively, Δϕ is the potential jump across the wake sheet,
φq represents the velocity potential at any point q on S, and G 3.1. Ship Model Experiment
denotes the Green’s function. In the case of unbounded three-
dimensional fluid domain, G is given as In order to demonstrate application of the propeller/FGV design
procedure numerical design example is carried out involving a
1
G ¼ Gðp; qÞ ¼ ð8Þ container ship. Table 1 lists the main parameters of the full scale
Rðp; qÞ
ship. The wake field is obtained through model tests carried out in
with Rðp; qÞ being the distance between points p and q. ς in Eq. Shanghai Ship & Shipping Research Institute (SSSRI). The tests
(7) has values as follows: were conducted at the SSSRI facilities on the ship model manu-
factured by SSSRI equipped in the deep water towing tank. The
* ς ¼ 1 , if p lies in the flow field, but not on S, model scale ratio is 50.7940, and the operating speed is 1.588 m/s
* ς ¼ 1/2, if p lies on S, with the full scale vessel being 11.32 m/s.
* ς ¼ 0, if p lies within S. For the wake field at the propeller plane measured in this
paper, the Cartesian coordinate (X, Y, Z) is used for displaying the
The propeller surface and wake sheet is discretized with data, where X points in the downstream direction, Y starboard, and
hyperboloidal panels. A constant source and a constant dipole are Z upstream direction. The origin of the inertial frame is selected to
then distributed on each panel. During unsteady calculation, the coincide with the center of the propeller plane. All the coordinates
integral Eq. (7) is solved at each time step, and time-dependent are nondimensionalized by D.
terms are updated at the next time step. The Eq. (7) can be dis- The axial and in-plane nominal wake fields measured at the
cretized as follows: propeller plane are shown in Fig. 2, Values in which are non-
dimensionalized by the ship speed V0. Axial wake contours and
X
NP X
MB
transverse velocity vectors show good symmetry with respect to
ai;j φj ðnÞ þ W i;m;1 Δφm;1 ðnÞ ¼ RHSi ðnÞ; i ¼ 1; 2; …; NP ð9Þ
j¼1 m¼1
the Y¼ 0 plane. Most transverse velocity vectors are directed
upward and inward, and downward flow vectors are observed
above the hub.
NB X
X NP NB X
X NP
bi;j σ Zj ðnÞ  aZi;j φZj ðnÞ
Z
RHSi ðnÞ ¼
Z ¼1j¼1 Z ¼2j¼1 3.2. Wake conversion of the full scale ship
NB X
X MB X
NW
 W Zi;m;l ΔφZm;l ðnÞ The wake field of the full scale vessel is difficult to obtain
Z ¼2m¼1l¼1 directly. However, it can be gotten approximately by using the
existing theoretical empirical formulas. This paper adopts the
MB X
X NW
 W Zi;m;l Δϕm;l ðnÞ
m¼1l¼2 Table 1
Main parameters of the full scale ship.
where Z is the number of blades. For each blade, NC is the number
of chordwise panels, N R is the number of spanwise panels, NP ¼ 2 Title
N C  N R is the total number of panels, and N W is the number of
Z Length of waterline (m) 290.60
chordwise panels in the wake. The influence coefficients aZi;j and bi;j Length between perpendiculars (m) 286.00
are defined as the potentials induced at panel i by unit (constant) Breadth moulded (m) 48.20
strength dipole and source distributions, respectively, located at Draught fore (m) 14.80
Draught aft (m) 14.80
panel j on blade Z. The wake influence coefficients W Zi;m;l are
Design draft moulded (m) 12.50
defined similarly. The definitions of the influence coefficients are Displacement volume moulded (m3) 143390.0
given in the dissertation of Hsin (1990).
The velocities on the propeller surface can be obtained by dif-
ferentiating the resulting velocity potential, and the pressure dis-
tribution is calculated by using Bernoulli’s equation. As the FGV
torque doesn’t have any contribution to the hydrodynamic per-
formance of the combined propulsor, it isn’t considered here. The
hydrodynamic performance coefficients of the combined pro-
pulsor can be defined as follows:
ωs Þ
; K TP ¼ ρn2pD4 ; K Q P ¼ ρn2pD5 ; ηP ¼ KKQTPP J ð1
V0 T Q
J ¼ nD 2π

Td K TZ J ð1  ωs Þ
K Td ¼ ; T Z ¼ T p þ T d ; K TZ ¼ K TP þ K Td ; ηZ ¼
ρn 2 D 4 KQP 2π

where K TP , K Q P are the thrust and torque coefficients of propeller,

Q P and ηP are the torque and efficiency of propeller, K Td is the FGV
thrust coefficient, T P and T d are the thrusts of the propeller and
the FGV respectively, T Z is the total thrust of the combined pro-
pulsor, K TZ and ηZ are the thrust coefficient and propulsive effi-
ciency of the combined propulsor, J is the advance coefficient, ρ is
the ambient fluid density, D and n represent the diameter and rate
of rotation of the propeller, V0 is the ship speed, ωs is the average
axial wake fraction. Fig. 2. Measured wake distribution at the propeller plane.
14 L.X. Hou et al. / Ocean Engineering 110 (2015) 11–17

wake correction formula ITTC recommended for calculation.
W ts ¼ ðt m þ 0:04Þ þ ðW tm  t m 0:04Þ
 
 ð1 þ KÞC Fs þ ΔC F =½ð1 þK ÞC Fm 
Where t m , W tm denote the thrust deduction and the nominal
wake of the model scale vessel respectively, C Fs and C Fm represent
the frictional resistance coefficients of the full scale and model
scale ships respectively, ΔC F is the correlation factor, 1þ K is the
form factor. The nominal wake field of the full scale vessel can be
obtained through Eq. (9).
The ship model used for wake measurement was also used for
the self-propulsion test with a stock propeller. The propeller dia-
meter was 9.60 m for the prototype and 0.189 m for the model
ship. The model scale and full scale self-propulsion tests gave the
resistance and propulsive coefficients, as shown in Table 2.
As the propeller should be designed in the effective wake field
of the full scale vessel, the effective wake field of the full scale
vessel is obtained through some transformation with the nominal
wake. The mean-modified method is the commonly used trans-
formation method (Chu, 2012):
1:0  W ts
W E ¼ 1:0  ð1:0  ωS Þ
1:0  ωV
where W E is the effective wake distribution, ωV denotes the
body average of the nominal wake distribution. By using the thrust
identity method, we can get the mean effective axial wake fraction
of the full scale ship, namely, ωS ¼ 0:2738.
the propeller and the FGV is considered through the induced
velocities obtained by utilizing the SPM.
In step a of Fig. 3, the induced velocities from FGV are not
ð9Þ
considered in the first design process. The induced velocities of
FGV on propeller calculated in step c include the induced velo-
cities, used for propeller design, at the design points of propeller
and those, used for hydrodynamic performance prediction, at the
panel centroids of the designed propeller.
The FGV design in step b is different from the propeller design.
As the FGV is fixed in the wake field after propeller, different
blades have different inflow velocities (considering the dis-
turbance velocities from the propeller). In order to produce addi-
tional thrust as much as possible, the FGV blades need to be
designed independently. An FGV of Z 2 blades needs Z 2 designs.
Each blade needs to be designed independently. Taking the first
blade as example, the inflow velocity can be determined according
to its position. The flow field is considered circumferentially uni-
form and the radial inflow velocity distribution is equal to that of
the first blade. Thus, an interim FGV of Z 2 same blades can be
designed using the diameter d and circulation Γ 2 . Taking the
designed interim FGV blade as the first blade needed. The other
ð10Þ blades are designed in the same way.
The total thrust T Z of the combined propulsor ought to reach
the required thrust. As the FGV produce thrust too, the propeller
thrust T P of the combined propulsor ought to be smaller than the
required thrust.
4.2. Design results

4. FGV design The combined propulsor is designed in the obtained effective

wake field of the full scale vessel. The ship speed V 0 is 11.32 m/s.
4.1. Design procedure The propeller diameter is 9.60 m, and the rotational speed of
propeller is 3.89 rad/s. The shaft depth is 9.90 m. The designed
By combining the PVT and the SPM, this paper has established combined propulsor is aimed for a thrust of roughly 2910416.35N.
the FGV design system given in Fig. 3. The interference between Study of Boswell (1971) gives that propeller with skew can have
better cavitation performance and smaller force fluctuating
Table 2 amplitude. However, the propeller skew ought not to be too large
Resistance and propulsive coefficients. considering the blade strength especially for a large scale pro-
peller. In order to strike a balance between the propeller strength
CFs  103 CFm  103 tm △CF  10  3 1þ K and the propulsive performance, the designed propeller has a
1.3545 3.2237 0.1664 0.150 1.0
maximum skew of 12 °. In addition, the existence of rear rake can
effectively restrain the blade tip vortices which can have severe

Start Propeller and FGV

Results

Yes

Input Initial Parameters of

No
TZ Meets the Need of
Propeller and Wake Field Thrust or not

Yes
Step c: Calculation
of Induced
Velocities of FGV No
Step a: Propeller Design through PTV
on Propeller K and K Converge or not
and Performance Prediction by SPM

Solution of Bound Step b: FGV Design through PTV and

Circulation Γ1 performance prediction by SPM
Γ2 is Determined
through Formula (6)

Calculation of Induced d= δ D
Calculation of Slipstream
Velocities of Propeller on
Contraction Ratio δ
Design Points of FGV

Fig. 3. Flow diagram for propeller/FGV design algorithm.

 L.X. Hou et al. / Ocean Engineering 110 (2015) 11–17
Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of design SFP.
impingement on the devices behind the propeller. The propeller
designed in this paper has a rear rake of 15 °.
It is known from the research of Celik and Güner (2007) that
the efficiency gain increases with the increasing number of FGV
blades and axial spacing between the propeller and the FGV.
However, a large number of blades may prevent the natural flow
from upstream through the FGV causing a “water blockage” (Celik
and Güner, 2007) particularly around the hub region, and the rate
of efficiency increase becomes smaller when the axial spacing is
greater than 0.25D. Hence, the number of FGV blades and axial
spacing ought to be finite. In this paper, the FGV has 8 blades and
the propeller 5 blades, and the axial spacing between the propeller
and the FGV is 0.30D. The FGV diameter is determined through
calculating the slipstream contraction ratio of the propeller at the
FGV plane.
Unlike the propeller, the FGV is fixed. Working in the wake field
after propeller, different blades have different inflow velocities
composed of the wake velocity and the disturbance velocity from
the propeller. In order to produce additional thrust as much as
possible, the FGV blades need to be designed independently. For
the full scale design, the 8 bladed FGV needs 8 designs. Both the
propeller and the FGV adopt the modified NACA66 section with
a ¼ 0:8. For the determinations of the chord and thickness dis-
tributions along the radial direction the non-cavitation condition
is considered. The design result is shown in Fig. 4.
The slipstream contraction ratio of the propeller is 0.934, so the
FGV diameter d is 8.97 m. As the propeller is a right handed pro-
peller, the tangential wake flow at the portside of hull has the
same direction with the tangential induced velocity the propeller
produces, and an opposite situation happens at the starboard side
of hull. Therefore, the pitch angles at the port side are significantly
smaller than those at the starboard side and less than 90°.
The FGV blades are arranged anticlockwise (viewing from
downstream) and have an equal angular spacing, and the No.1
blade is located just above the hub, as shown in Fig. 6. Fig. 5 gives
the pitch angle distributions of the three starboard blades. It is
known that the pitch angles of blade 6 and blade 8 are more than
90°when r is over 0.67, and the pitch angle of blade 7 is more than
90° with r being over 0.55, as the partial enlargement of Fig. 3
shows. This mainly because that the transverse inflow vectors
have significant influence on the pitch angle of FGV, as shown in
Fig. 6 viewing from downstream. It can be seen that most of
transverse velocities have clockwise direction. However, some
outside transverse velocities at the starboard side have antic-
lockwise direction. Because the induced velocities from the pro-
peller are in clockwise direction, and the transverse wake vectors
at the starboard side have anticlockwise direction just opposite to
15
Fig. 5. Pitch angle distributions of blades at starboard side.
Fig. 6. Transverse inflow vectors at FGV plane and positions of FGV blades.
those at the port side. This means that when the induced velocities
are less than the wake vectors at the starboard side, the transverse
inflow velocities will have anticlockwise direction. Owing to this
situation, the starboard blades of the FGV have distortion states
and have pitch angles over 90°, as the partial enlargement of Fig. 3
shows. In this paper, the propeller is a right-handed propeller and
the FGV can be regarded as a left-handed propeller without
rotational speed.
4.3. Performance analysis
The combined propulsor is designed to produce roughly
2910416.35N at design condition. This paper has unsteady
hydrodynamic performance predictions of the designed combined
propulsor and the single propeller respectively, and the unsteady
hydrodynamic performance of the combined propulsor is pre-
dicted considering the interference between the propeller and the
FGV. Figs. 7 and 8 show the thrust and torque coefficients for one
revolution respectively. Both the single propeller and the propeller
with FGV show significant periodicities whereas the oscillation
amplitudes of the thrust and torque of the combined propulsor are
significantly smaller. What’s more, the thrust of propeller with
FGV is significantly higher than that of the single propeller while
the torque of the combined propulsor is slightly higher. Therefore,
the existence of FGV makes great contribution to the thrust and
evens out the fluctuations of the thrust and torque to some extent.
Table 3 gives the time-averaged hydrodynamic performance
coefficients over one revolution. The designed combined propulsor
reaches approximately the thrust needed. The torque of FGV isn’t
discussed here as it has no requirement to the engine. As the result
shows, the thrust and torque of the front propeller of combined
propulsor are somewhat higher than those of the single propeller.
16 L.X. Hou et al. / Ocean Engineering 110 (2015) 11–17

Single propeller Propeller with FGV

0.226 0.3
Single propeller
0.224 0.25 Combined propulsor
0.222 0.2

ut/V0
KTP

0.22 0.15
0.218 0.1
0.216 0.05
0.214
0 100 200 300 400 0
0.1 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.9 1.1
φ[º] r
Fig. 7. Thrust over one revolution for single propeller and propeller with FGV.

0.3
Single propeller
Single propeller Propeller with FGV 0.25
0.35 Combined propulsor

0.348 0.2

ut/V0
0.346 0.15
0.344
10KQ

0.1
0.342
0.05
0.34
0.338 0
0.1 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.9 1.1
0.336 r
0 100 200 300 400
φ[º]
0.25
Fig. 8. Torque over one revolution for single propeller and propeller with FGV. Single propeller
0.2 Combined propulsor

Table 3 0.15
Hydrodynamic performance time-averaged result.
ut/V0

0.1
KT 10KQ η
0.05
Single propeller 0.2201 0.344 0.736
Combined propulsor KTP:0.2231þ KTd: 0.0163 (2912598.61N) 0.345 0.797 0
0.1 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.9 1.1
-0.05
r

0.3
Single propeller
0.25 Combined propulsor
0.2
ut/V0

0.15
0.1
0.05

Fig. 9. Single propeller and combined propulsor circulations. 0

0.1 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.9 1.1
r
Fig. 11. Tangential induced velocities at the plane a D downstream of the propeller
plane. (a) θ¼ 0°. (b) θ¼ 90°. (c) θ¼ 180°. (d) θ¼ 270°.

Besides, the FGV provides an additional thrust. Therefore, com-

Fig. 10. Radial lines for slipstream analysis.
pared with the single propeller the combined propulsor has an
increase in thrust by 8.7% and propulsive efficiency 8.3%.
The circulation Γ can be written in non-dimensional form as
follows:
Γ
G¼
π DV 0
As the circulations of different blades are different, Fig. 9 gives
the total radial circulation distributions of the single propeller and
the combined propulsor. The total circulation is the superposition
of the circulations of all blades. As the propulsor works in the
nonuniform flow field, the circulations change over time. Values in
Fig. 9 are time-averaged over one revolution under design
 L.X. Hou et al. / Ocean Engineering 110 (2015) 11–17
condition. The existence of FGV changes the radial circulation
distribution of propeller and makes the loading on the propeller
blade shifted inboard. The result agrees with the conclusion of
literature by Lee et al (2014), although the turbine is in free
rotation.
This paper calculates the average tangential induced velocities
produced by the designed combined propulsor as well as the
designed single propeller for one revolution along the radial
direction on the disk which is 1.15D downstream from the propeller
plane. Four radial lines are chosen as the research objects, the line
θ ¼0° is allocated above the propeller shaft and parallel with the
first FGV blade, the other lines are arranged anticlockwise viewing
from downstream. The angular spacing of lines is 90°as shown in
Fig. 10. Fig. 11 gives the calculated results. The tangential induced
velocities produced by the designed combined propulsor are
obviously smaller than those by the single propeller. Calculating the
tangential induced velocities in the slipstream through Eq. (3) using
the data given in Fig. 9, it can be found that the calculated values are
approximately equal to the tangential induced velocities of the
combined propulsor in Fig. 11. In other words, the slipstream
rotational energy of the propeller is recovered efficiently to some
extent.
5. Conclusions
An iterative numerical method for the design and performance
prediction of downstream FGV for marine propeller is proposed.
Through design case study conclusions can be summarized as
follows:
For the FGV designed by using the design method proposed in
this study, the pitch angles of blade 6 and blade 8 are more than
90° when r is over 0.68, and the pitch angle of blade 7 is more than
90° with r over 0.55.
The unsteady hydrodynamic performance predictions of the
designed combined propulsor and the single propeller are carried
out. The thrust and torque of the designed combined propulsor
and the single propeller show significant periodicities whereas the
oscillation of the thrust and torque of the front propeller of the
combined propulsor is significantly smaller. What’s more, the
thrust of combined propulsor is significantly higher than the single
propeller whereas the torque of combined propulsor is slightly
higher. Therefore, the existence of the FGV makes great con-
tribution to the thrust and evens out the fluctuations of the thrust
and torque to some extent. According to the time-averaged
hydrodynamic performance coefficients over one rotor revolu-
tion, the combined propulsor has an increase in thrust by 8.7% and
propulsive efficiency 8.3% compared with the single propeller.
17
For better understanding about the energy saving principle of
FGV, the radial circulation distributions of the combined propulsor
and the single propeller and the tangential induced velocities at
the disk 1.15 D downstream of the propeller plane are calculated.
The tangential induced velocities produced by the designed com-
bined propulsor are obviously smaller than those by the single
propeller. In other words, the slipstream rotational energy of the
propeller is recovered efficiently to some extent.
The method proposed in this paper has universality and suits for
the FGV design of almost kinds of ships. In the context of energy
saving and emission reduction, this paper has great application value.
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