In the search for increasing efficiency and reduced costs a number of ship operators have turned to coating their ships propeller to prevent fouling build-up and reduce cleaning costs. In support of this the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and International Paint have an ongoing investigation into the effects of foul release type antifouling coatings on marine propellers. To date over 180 full-scale marine propellers have been coated using foul release coatings. The results have shown that propeller coatings can give fouling free performance for in excess of 36 months. In addition a major feature of feedback from the ship operators has been reports of reduced noise and vibration after the application of the coating. To investigate if these claims could be substantiated a series of tests using the Emerson Cavitation Tunnel at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne was conducted for the first time. This paper reports on the early results of an experimental investigation into the effects of a foul release coating upon the noise and cavitation generated by a scale model of a commercial marine propeller with the aim of quantifying the extent of these effects once the coating has been applied. The propeller model was selected to be representative of an actual full-scale coated propeller that is typical of coating applications to date.
展开▼
