Three-component velocity field measurements of propeller wake using a stereoscopic PIV technique

A stereoscopic PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) technique was used to measure the three-dimensional flow structure of the turbulent wake behind a marine propeller with five blades. The out-of-plane velocity component was determined using two CCD cameras with an angular displacement configuration. Four hundred instantaneous velocity fields were measured for each of four different blade phases, and ensemble averaged in order to find the spatial evolution of the propeller wake in the region from the trailing edge up to one propeller diameter (D) downstream. The influence of propeller loading conditions on the wake structure was also investigated by measuring the velocity fields at three advance ratios (J=0.59, 0.72 and 0.88). The phase-averaged velocity fields revealed that a viscous wake formed by the boundary layers developed along the blade surfaces. Tip vortices were generated periodically and the slipstream contracted in the near-wake region. The out-of-plane velocity component and strain rate had large values at the locations of the tip and trailing vortices. As the flow moved downstream, the turbulence intensity, the strength of the tip vortices, and the magnitude of the out-of-plane velocity component at trailing vortices all decreased due to effects such as viscous dissipation, turbulence diffusion, and blade-to-blade interaction.