Increasing rowing wheel efficiency of watercraft at high-speed

Rowing wheels would be preferable for the advanced hovercrafts, but in order to achieve the desirable cost and energy efficiency, a hovercraft must be able to move at velocities higher than their critical velocity value of 20... 40 km/h. At such velocities, the conventional rowing wheels can have a negative efficiency factor. It is demonstrated through the calculations presented in the article. A series of conducted computational experiments allowed both determining and eliminating the origins of this effect by selecting the divided blades fixed at different angles in radial arrays. This allowed improving the blades hydrodynamical properties and provided a permanently high propulsive efficiency (about 50 %) within the range of 5 to 45 km/h. This opens up a prospect of using the rowing wheels for a wide range of watercrafts.

References

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