An experimental assessment of resistance reduction and wake modification of a KVLCC model by using outer-layer vertical blades

Abstract

In this study, an experimental investigation has been made of the applicability of outer-layer vertical blades to real ship model. After first devised by Hutchins and Choi (2003), the outer-layer vertical blades demonstrated its effectiveness in reducing total drag of flat plate (Park et al., 2011) with maximum drag reduction of 9.6%. With a view to assessing the effect in the flow around a ship, the arrays of outer-layer vertical blades have been installed onto the side bottom and flat bottom of a 300k KVLCC model. A series of towing tank test has been carried out to investigate resistance (CTM) reduction efficiency and improvement of stern wake distribution with varying geometric parameters of the blades array. The installation of vertical blades led to the CTM reduction of 2.15∼2.76% near the service speed. The nominal wake fraction was affected marginally by the blades array and the axial velocity distribution tended to be more uniform by the blades array.

Keywords

• Energy efficient ship
• Skin frictional drag reduction
• Outer-layer vertical blades
• Effective power
• Turbulent boundary layer
• Wake