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Rudders and Propellers

The propeller of a ship works by using its rotating blades to push water down and back, creating positive pressure on the underside of the blades and negative pressure on the top. This pressure differential causes water to be drawn into the front of the propeller and accelerated out the back, producing a thrust force that propels the ship forward.

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Pranjyoti Saikia
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59 views5 pages

Rudders and Propellers

The propeller of a ship works by using its rotating blades to push water down and back, creating positive pressure on the underside of the blades and negative pressure on the top. This pressure differential causes water to be drawn into the front of the propeller and accelerated out the back, producing a thrust force that propels the ship forward.

Uploaded by

Pranjyoti Saikia
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How does the propeller of a ship

works?
To understand this concept, let us freeze a
propeller just at the point where one of the
blades is projecting directly out of the page
(Figure 3-1). This is a right-hand rotation
propeller, whose projecting blade is rotating
from top to bottom and is moving from left to
right. As the blade in this discussion rotates or
moves downward, it pushes water down and
back as is done by your hand when swimming. At
the same time, water must rush in behind the
blade to fill the space left by the downward
moving blade. This results in a pressure
differential between the two sides of the blade:
a positive pressure, or pushing effect, on the
underside and a negative pressure, or pulling
effect, on the top side. This action, of course,
occurs on all the blades around the full circle of
rotation as the engine rotates the propeller. So
the propeller is both pushing and being pulled
through the water.
Thrust/Momentum
These pressures cause water to be drawn into the propeller from in front and accelerated
out the back, just as a household fan pulls air in from behind it and blows it out toward
you (Figure 3-2 below).
The marine propeller draws or pulls water in from its front end through an imaginary
cylinder a little larger than the propeller diameter (Figure 3-3). The front end of the
propeller is the end that faces the boat. As the propeller spins, water accelerates through
it, creating a jet stream of higher-velocity water behind the propeller. This exiting water
jet is smaller in diameter than the actual diameter of the propeller.
This water jet action of pulling water in and pushing it out at a higher velocity adds
momentum to the water. This change in momentum or acceleration of the water results in
a force which we can call thrust.

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