The STREAMLINE project is a collaborative R&D project, partly funded by the7th Framework Programme of the European Commission. The project includes 21 organisations coordinated by Rolls-Royce Power Engineering and has a budget of 10.9 million euros.
The STREAMLINE project (Strategic research for innovative marine propulsion concepts) has investigated several State-of-the-Art propulsion system and new propulsion combined with advanced CFD for accurate analysis and design of the propulsors.
SCITEK were involved in WP2.2, ‘High efficiency waterjets at low speed’. Waterjet systems represent a unique solution for propulsion of fast vessels in the speed range of 25-45 knots and even more. In spite of unparalleled performance at high speeds, a major drawback of waterjets is that for lower speeds this propulsive solution becomes inefficient as compared with conventional screw propeller technology. To overcome such limitations and achieve a full exploitation of waterjet propulsion, WP22 aimed to develop techniques to increase low speed performance and hence provide higher efficiency across a wider operational profile.
Intake design is typically a compromise between high and low speed performance. However, by applying aerospace expertise to the design and optimisation of the waterjet intake duct the low speed efficiency was improved without a significant effect on the high speed performance.
