MAR3040 07 Lifting Line Procedure
MAR3040 07 Lifting Line Procedure
MAR3040 07 Lifting Line Procedure
Hydrodynamics
Lifting Line and Wake Adaptation Procedure
Learning Outcomes
• How the lifting line can be used to develop an algorithm to optimise the
loading distribution across a propeller’s blade
Lifting Line Model Revisited
• These vortices characterise the lift (or thrust) force on the blade
• Blade has a finite aspect ratio, therefore free vortices are shed in the
slipstream of the propeller, like a revolving helical surface
• Assume vortices leave lifting line and move downstream on cylindrical surface
with constant diameter, and constant pitch (Corresponding to )
• Note that the varying wake has not been accounted for yet!
Design Algorithm for Moderately Loaded
Propeller Based on LLT (Cont.)
Preliminary steps:
• Let = , then it can be shown that:
tan = = constant
Where tan is the pitch ratio (ie ) of the surface on which the resultant
velocity lies
• Now problem is to find Γ , and at each radius
• Knowing the above enables us to calculate thrust, torque etc at each radius,
then sum up these sectional values and obtain totals.
BUT
• Γ , depends on , depends on and which also depend on Γ
• Iterative procedure is necessary
Design Algorithm for Moderately Loaded
Propeller Based on LLT (Cont.)
Iterative Process:
1. Assume initial pitch ratio distribution of tan for each section (or )
2. Calculate induced velocities and as a function of and
3. Calculate sectional circulation distribution, Γ in terms of velocities ,
and the lift coefficient
HOWEVER
THEREFORE
• Free vortex sheets in ultimate wake (far downstream) should lie on a regular
helical surface
tan 1−
tan =
1−
tan
• represents the Betz minimum energy condition, and Lerbs introduces the
1−
semi-empirical wake term of 1−
Inclusion of Wake (Non-Uniform Hull
Flow) into Lifting Line Model (Cont.)
Lifting line at section looks like:
Wake Adaptation Algorithm using Lifting
Line
Including non-uniformity of flow (wake) earlier algorithm becomes:
3. Calculate and
4. Calculate Γ and
5. Obtain calculated
from step 2
Wake Adaptation Algorithm using Lifting
Line (Cont.)
• This is used in the following lectures to design the blades (We only have a
lifting line at the moment, no blades)
Conclusions
• How the lifting line can be used to develop an algorithm to optimise the
loading distribution across a propeller’s blade
Now that we have the optimised loading distribution, we need to obtain the
sectional geometry that will provide this