Stern Wedges and Stern Flaps for Improved Powering - U.S. Navy Experience

The U.S. Navy has been a leader in the development of stern wedges and stern flaps for improved ship powering performance. Stern wedges, now in use on all DDG 51 Class flight I and II destroyers, reduce the powering at the top speed by about 6 percent. Other ships have been fitted with stern flaps, the most elective of which is on the USS ARTHUR W. RADFORD (DD 968). According to ship trials, this flap resulted in an 11.7 percent average powering reduction for an estimated $135,000 per year decrease in fuel costs. In practice, flap retrofit costs can be recovered in less than a year. The life cvcle cost savings, due to retrofitting a stern flap on all DD 963 SPRUANCE Class Destroyers and CG 47 TICONDEROGA Class Cruisers, has an estimated Net Present Value of $83 Million. An extensive model test data base on stern wedges and stern flaps has been assembled. Model tests, and computational fluid dynamics analyses, explain the details of the performance improvement. Full-scale ship trials indicate greater powering reductions than shown by the model test data. A scale effect study, comprised of model tests at various scale ratios and Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes computational fluid dynamics analyses, confirms the improved performance at ship scale.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9780939773879
• Corporate Authors:

  Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers

  601 Pavonia Avenue
  Jersey City, NJ  United States  07306-2907
• Authors:
  • Karafiath, Gabor
  • Cusanelli, Dominic
  • Lin, Cheng Wen
• Publication Date: 2011

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 33p
• Monograph Title: Sustainabilty in the Maritime Industry: A collection of relevant papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Fuel consumption; Life cycle costing; Military vessels; Propulsion; Savings; Wedges
• Identifier Terms: United States Navy
• Uncontrolled Terms: Stern flaps
• Subject Areas: Energy; Marine Transportation; Vehicles and Equipment; I15: Environment; I90: Vehicles;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01372448
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9780939773879
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 14 2012 10:55AM