Experimental Performance of a Novel Trochoidal Propeller

In the quest for energy efficiency in marine transportation, a promising marine propulsor concept is the trochoidal propeller. We have designed and tested a novel trochoidal propeller using a sinusoidal blade pitch function. The main results presented are measurements of thrust and torque, as well as the calculated efficiency, for a range of advance coefficients. The experimental data show narrow 95\% confidence bounds, demonstrating high accuracy and repeatability in the experimental methods. We compare our sinusoidal-pitch trochoidal propeller with prior cross-flow propellers, as well as a representative screw propeller. While the efficiency of our propeller exceeds that of the cycloidal-pitch trochoidal propeller, it is slightly lower than the efficiencies of the other propellers considered. We also present a theoretical model that can be used to further explore and optimize such trochoidal propellers, leading to new avenues for improvements in marine propulsion systems.