The results indicate that correct prediction of the wake field is necessary in simulations to obtain good agreement with model tests. The wake field in model scale seems to be much more sensitive to the employed turbulence model than in full scale. The differences in the wake field between full and model scale might explain the differences in performance of the vane wheel between model and full scale. The resistance of the rudder is much higher for the vessel with the vane wheel than for the variant without vane wheel. This decreases the overall efficiency gain due to the vane wheel. This needs to be taken into account in design and optimisation of the vane wheel, e.g. by taking rudder in the optimisation loop. The thrust created by the vane wheel over time is very non-uniform. The vane wheel creates thrust on starboard side of the vessel and drag on port side. The reason for this is the coupled effect of the non-uniform wake and propeller-induced flow rotation. This non-uniform loading of vane wheel blades should be taken into account in design to obtain larger improvements.
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