HYDRO-ACOUSTIC CHARACTERIZATION OF “THE PRINCESS ROYAL” PROPELLER AS PART OF A ROUND ROBIN TEST CAMPAIGN

Nowadays underwater radiated noise is concerned as one of shipping detrimental emissions and so its study has gained significant importance in context of research in naval architecture. In particular, the propeller, when cavitating, represents the main contributor to the total noise radiated by the ship. Despite the continuous development of numerical codes for radiated noise computation, this topic is still largely studied through model scale experiments in dedicated facilities. However also this approach presents several issues to be overcome in order to achieve a consistent evaluation of cavitating propeller radiated noise. Model scale experiments are always affected by scale effects and for propeller noise measurements, these regard a wide range of physical aspects. Due to this, institutes performing such activities are continuously involved in researches aimed to the enhancement of test and post-processing procedures. Furthermore, results of model scale tests, especially noise, are strongly influenced by the characteristics of the facility, by the setup adopted and the experimental procedures which should be always reported in details with results. In this context, knowledge exchange between different facilities represents an effective way to improve measurements techniques, test and post processing procedures (to be standardized as far as possible). Actually, this is one of the aims of the Noise Community of Practice of the Hydro Testing Forum (HTF). In particular, a round robin campaign has been undertaken by almost all the members regarding noise measurements for the propeller of the “Princess Royal”, based on the extensive campaign carried out at Emerson Cavitation Tunnel. In this paper tests carried out at University of Genova (UNIGE) are presented together with part of the extensive experimental campaign carried out at the Emerson Cavitation Tunnel, which was the starting point of the Round Robin campaign.