Study on the hydrodynamic characteristics of an outboard engine propeller with hydrophobic coating

There have been very few researches on applying hydrophobic coating to marine propellers, especially the direct comparison of performance data from CFD and test to clarify the benefit of using hydrophobic coating. To further clarifying the influence of hydrophobic coating, the performance of two types of a propeller, with PTFE hydrophobic coating and with normal coating, were studied and compared by both CFD computations and by open water tests. The measurement was using a propeller test rig on a towing tank carriage. Measured results show identical trend of improvement caused by the PTFE hydrophobic coating as the results given by CFD computations. Both CFD and tested results indicate the performance improvement caused by the coating is significant only at lower rotational speed. This gives a direction on future research on the effectiveness of hydrophobic coating for improving propeller performances. • There has been very few researches on hydrophobic coating to marine propellers, and the comparison of performance data from CFD and test. • This paper just did it by computing and testing a propeller with the hydrophobic surface and an ordinary propeller. • The CFD method was published by the author. But its comparison with the test data has never been done before. • The improvement caused by the hydrophobic coating is significant only at lower rotational speed.