Mission and Goals of the Consortium

Recent demands for higher speed ocean vehicles and, at the same time, for more efficient propulsion, have made the appearance of cavitation inevitable. Thus, contemporary hydrofoil or propulsor blade designs must take advantage of controlled cavitation in order to increase the efficiency of propulsion.

There is an urgent need for reliable, automated, and general propulsor design methods which take cavitation into account.

This universal problem demands a joint effort between industries and research centers worldwide, in order to address the common issues underlying the presence of cavitation in each specific application. Prof. Kinnas leads such a collaborative effort since March 1993 .

The major goals of this consortium are:

• To develop efficient computational optimization techniques for automated design of innovative high-speed propulsive configurations in the presence of cavitation. For given design requirements and constraints, the geometry of the cavitating propulsor will be determined by the computer rather than by the designer, thereby reducing the design time. The most efficient cavitating propulsor will thus be selected from all possible solutions rather than from a limited number of solutions (some of which may not even meet the requirements) which are usually considered in a manual design procedure.
  
  
• To improve the present cavity model by performing computational and experimental research in order to address several fundamental aspects of the model. Integrating these improvements in the design process will result in a new generation of propulsors which meet the design requirements within reasonable bounds, thereby reducing the model testing cost and time.

For more information see also: An International Consortium on High-Speed Propulsion Marine Technology, July 1996