Static Stresses on Wide-Bladed Propellers

Abstract

Static stresses were obtained in laboratory experiments for a destroyer propeller having aerofoil blade sections and a supercavitating propeller having wedge-shaped blade sections, using specially constructed pressure chambers which allowed the blade faces to be loaded under air pressure. A new method of application of beam theory is presented which closely predicts the magnitude and distribution of radial stresses on the destroyer propeller blade. For the supercavitating propeller, neither the proposed beam theory method nor a particular computerized shell analysis can be considered entirely satisfactory for prediction of blade stresses.