• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.371-379
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• 2016

In the ship design process, ship motion and propulsion performance in sea waves became very important issues. Especially, prediction of ship propulsion performance during real operation is an important challenge to ship owners for economic operation in terms of fuel consumption and route-time evaluation. Therefore, it should be considered in the early design stages of the ship. It is thought that the averaged value and fluctuation of effective inflow velocity to the propeller have a great effect on the propulsion performance in waves. However, even for the nominal velocity distribution, very few results have been presented due to some technical difficulties in experiments. In this study, flow measurements near the propeller plane using a stereo PIV system were performed. Phase-averaged flow fields on the propeller plane of a KVLCC2 model ship in waves were measured in the towing tank by using the stereo PIV system and a phase synchronizer with heave motion. The experiment was carried out at fully loaded condition with making surge, heave and pitch motions free at a forward speed corresponding to Fr=0.142 (Re=2.55×106) in various head waves and calm water condition. The phase averaged nominal velocity fields obtained from the measurements are discussed with respect to effects of wave orbital velocity and ship motion. The low velocity region is affected by pressure gradient and ship motion.