A Review On Materials Used For Marine Propellers

Since two decades Marine propellers are leaning towards composite materials as an alternative to conventionally used steels and Nickel-Aluminium-Bronze (NAB). The complex geometry of marine propeller with many challenges in design attained focus of many researchers. This review mainly focuses on the composite material used for the marine propeller. The Materials used for Propellers of a varying number of blades with the fixed and controllable pitch having different diameters and skew angles were reviewed. Structural simulation, fluid simulation, Finite Element Methods, CFD Case studies, Cavitations, erosion wear tests, bend twist coupling analyses and fluid-structural simulations with open water and tunnel tests reviewed in this paper. Glass fiber composites proved to be economical and perform better and can be adaptable in an economical point of view. Carbon fiber composite propellers have more advantages than others with little compromises. Recent studies are focused on utilizing hybrid composite material for marine propeller as their versatility in achieving good results. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.