The design, manufacture & testing of a podded propulsor instrumentation package

Abstract

This body of work encompasses the documentation of the design, manufacture and initial testing of a unique piece of instrumentation. This instrumentation package attempts to measure a number of parameters related to the field of azimuthing podded propulsion, a type of marine propulsion for vessels. -- During the course of the design process, as many measurement capabilities as possible were included in the same setup, in addition to providing the ability to easily allow geometry changes. -- The measurement capabilities include: propeller torque and thrust measured at the propeller hub, propeller thrust measured at the pod interior end of the propeller shaft, pressure between the opposing faces of the propeller hub and pod shell end at five different radius values, the potential to measure blade angle position, outer pod shape drag force, and global loads of the pod unit relative to the test carriage. -- The geometry change capabilities include: propeller and propeller hub taper angle, pod shape, and adjustment of the gap distance between the propeller hub and pod shell end. -- When instrumentation manufacturing was completed, the instrumentation was assembled, calibrated and tested for the first time to assess its ability to measure the parameters it was designed to measure.