Tip-modified Propellers

The paper deals with tip-modified propellers and the methods which, over a period of two decades, have been applied to develop such propellers. The development is driven by the urge to increase the efficiency of propellers and can be seen as analogous to fitting end plates and winglets to aircraft wings.

The literature on four different designs is reviewed: the end-plate propeller; the two-sided, shifted end-plate propeller; the tip-fin propeller; and the bladelet propeller. The conclusion is that it is indeed possible to design tip-modified propellers that, relative to an optimum conventional propeller, have efficiency increases of a reasonable magnitude in both open-water and behind-ship conditions.