Marine propellers display several forms of cavitation. Of these, propeller-tip vortex cavitation is one of the important factors in propeller design. The dynamic behaviour of the tip vortex is responsible for hull vibration and noise. Thus, cavitation in the vortices trailing from tips of propeller blades has been studied extensively. Under certain circumstances cavitating vortices have been observed to have wave-like disturbances on the surfaces of vapour cores. Intense sound at discrete frequencies can result from a coupling between tip vortex disturbances and oscillating sheet cavitation on the surfaces of the propeller blades. This research article focuses on the dynamics of vortex cavitation and more in particular on the energy and frequency content of the radiated pressures.

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Performance of ship propellers and comfort levels in the surroundings are limited by various forms of cavitation. Amongst these forms tip vortex cavitation is one of the first appearing forms and is expected to be mainly responsible for the emission of broadband pressure fluctuations typically occurring between the 4th to the 7th blade passing frequency (approx. 40-70 Hz). These radiated pressure pulses are likely to excite parts of the hull structure resulting in a design compromise between efficiency and comfort. Insight is needed in the mechanism of acoustic emission from the oscillations by a tip vortex cavity. In the current experimental study the tip vortex cavity from a blade with an elliptic planform and sections based on NACA 662−415 with meanline a=0.8 is observed using high speed shadowgraphy in combination with blade force and acoustic measurements. An analytic model describing three main cavity deformation modes is verified and used to explain the origin of a cavity eigenfrequency or "vortex singing'' phenomenon observed by Maines and Arndt (1997) on the tip vortex cavity originating from the same blade. As no hydrodynamic sound originating from the tip vortex cavity was observed it is posed that a tip flow instability is essential for "vortex singing.''@en