Abstract
A stereo-PIV (particle image velocimetry) technique is used to investigate the vortical structure of the wake behind a rotating propeller in the present study. A four bladed propeller is tested in a cavitaion tunnel without any wake screen. Hundreds of instantaneous velocity fields are phase-averaged to reveal the three dimensional spatial evolution of the flow behind the propeller. The results of conventional 2-D PIV are also compared with those of the stereo-PIV to understand the vortical structure of propeller wake deeply. The variations of radial and axial velocities in the 2-D PIV results seem to be affected by the out-of-plane motion. generating a little perspective error in the in-plane velocity components of the slipstream. The strong out-of-plane motion around the hub vortex also causes the perspective error to vary the axial velocity component a little at the near wake region. The out-of-plane velocity component had the maximum value of about 0.3U0 in the tip vortices and continued its magnitude in the wake region.