JP2002234491A - Contra-rotating propeller device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a small contra-rotating propeller device at low production cost and maintenance cost of the device itself and at low construction cost of a ship. SOLUTION: This device has a first drive shaft and a second drive shaft disposed in series on the same straight line; a first propeller and a second propeller provided in the first drive shaft and the second drive shaft and disposed opposite to each other; and a first drive machine and a second drive machine respectively rotating the first drive shaft and the second drive shaft to rotate the first propeller and the second propeller to direction opposite to each other.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a contra-rotating propeller device used as a thrust generator for ships and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A contra-rotating propeller device is an aircraft or a contra-rotating propeller device in which two propellers arranged in front and behind by a double-shaft device are transmitted in the output of a main engine by a contra-rotating gear device and rotated in opposite directions. It is a thrust generating device used for ships and the like, and is said to be more efficient than a thrust generating device using a normal single propeller device because twisted flow is eliminated. Further, since the number of blades is increased by providing two propellers, the output of the main engine can be absorbed without increasing the diameter of the propeller.

A double-shaft device has a double-shaft structure including a drive shaft (inner shaft) and a coaxial hollow drive shaft (outer shaft) disposed outside the drive shaft. A propeller is provided and these two propellers are arranged coaxially close to each other. The contra-rotating gear device connects the inner shaft to a sun gear, connects the outer shaft to an internal gear that meshes with the sun gear via a planetary gear, and rotates the sun gear, that is, the inner shaft by the main engine. In general, a differential planetary gear system in which an internal gear, that is, an outer shaft rotates in a direction opposite to the inner shaft, is used.

[0004]

However, the contra-rotating propeller device has complicated mechanisms of the contra-rotating gear device and the dual-shaft device, so that not only the production cost of the device is high, but also repair and maintenance are required. The cost will be enormous. In addition, the main engine for driving the two propellers requires a large output and therefore has a large size, and the engine room for accommodating the two must be large, so that the entire ship becomes large and the construction cost of the ship increases. In addition, since the contra-rotating gear unit and the dual-shaft device are provided between the main engine and the propeller, the external dimensions of the entire device become large, and a large engine room is required to store them. In addition, there is a problem that the entire ship has to be enlarged, and the construction cost of the ship increases.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to obtain a small contra-rotating propeller device which is low in manufacturing cost and maintenance cost of the device itself and in ship building cost. .

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention according to claim 1 comprises a first drive shaft and a second drive shaft which are arranged in series on the same straight line, and the first drive shaft and the second drive shaft. A first propeller and a second propeller provided on the drive shaft and the second drive shaft and arranged to face each other, and rotating the first propeller and the second propeller in directions opposite to each other. , A first drive unit and a second drive unit for rotating the first drive shaft and the second drive shaft, respectively. The contra-rotating propeller device according to the present invention drives the first propeller and the second propeller by different driving machines, and does not have the first drive shaft and the second drive shaft in a double shaft structure. Since a contra-rotating gear unit and a double-shaft unit having a complicated mechanism are not required, the cost is low and the space can be saved.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the contra-rotating propeller device of the first aspect, one of the first drive shaft and the second drive shaft is supported by a rudder provided on the hull. Features. In the contra-rotating propeller device according to the present invention, since one of the drive shafts is supported by the rudder portion, the contra-rotating propeller device is provided without lowering the propulsion performance of the ship due to the provision of the drive shaft support portion. be able to.

The invention according to claim 3 is the invention according to claim 1 or 2
In the contra-rotating propeller device, one of the first driving device and the second driving device is an electric motor. The contra-rotating propeller device according to the present invention can easily control the rotation speed of the propeller by using an electric motor as the driving device.

[0009]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing the stern of a hull 100 provided with a contra-rotating propeller device according to the present invention. The contra-rotating propeller device includes a first drive shaft 10 and a second drive shaft 20 arranged in series on the same straight line.
A first propeller 11 and a second propeller 21 provided on the first drive shaft 10 and the second drive shaft 20 and arranged to face each other; and the first propeller 11 and the second A first drive unit 12 and a second drive unit 22 for rotating the first drive shaft 10 and the second drive shaft 20, respectively, so as to rotate the propellers 21 in directions opposite to each other. The hull 100
In the figure, the right side of the figure is the front (the traveling direction), and the engine room 10
1, a rudder room 102 and a rudder section 103 are provided.

The first drive shaft 10 is provided so as to protrude outboard from the engine room 101 toward the rear.
1 is rotatably supported on the hull 100 via a thrust bearing (not shown) by a seal structure (not shown) that does not allow water to enter. The first drive shaft 10 has a first end at a rear end.
The front end of the propeller 11 is connected to the first drive unit 12, and the shaft output of the first drive unit 12 is transmitted to the first propeller 11 mounted at the rear end.

The first propeller 11 includes a first drive shaft 10
The thrust is generated by being rotated with the rotation of. This thrust is transmitted to the hull 100 via a thrust bearing (not shown) that supports the first drive shaft 10 on the hull 100.

The first drive unit 12 is provided inside the engine room 101 and is connected to the first drive shaft 10 to drive the first drive shaft 10 (main unit). As the first drive unit 12, an internal combustion engine such as a steam turbine or a diesel engine is mainly used, and the rotation speed of the first drive shaft 10 can be adjusted by adjusting the rotation speed thereof. The generated propulsive force, that is, the speed of the ship, can be adjusted.

The second drive shaft 20 is disposed so as to be in line with the first drive shaft 10 on the same straight line, and is provided so as to protrude forward from the rudder horn 103a of the rudder 103 toward the outboard. The horn 103a is rotatably supported via a thrust bearing (not shown) by a seal structure (not shown) that is not immersed in water. This second drive shaft 2
A second propeller 21 is provided at the front end of the first propeller 11 so as to face the first propeller 11, and a rear end of the second propeller 21 is connected to a gear device 23 provided in the rudder horn 103a.

The second propeller 21 is the first propeller 1
The second drive shaft 20 is provided at the front end of the second drive shaft 20 so as to face the first drive shaft 20. The second propeller 21 is formed such that the mounting angle of the propeller blades is opposite to that of the first propeller 11, and is rotated in a direction opposite to the first propeller 11. The force generated by the rotation of the second propeller 21 is transmitted to the hull 100 via the thrust bearing and the rudder horn 103a.

The second drive unit 22 is provided inside the steering room 102, is connected to a vertically arranged rotating shaft 20a, and can rotate the rotating shaft 20a. The rotating shaft 20a passes through the inside of the rudder horn 103a and is connected to a gear device 23 provided at the lower end of the rudder horn 103a. This gear device 23 is provided with a second driving device 22.
By rotating the rotation of the rotating shaft 20a by 90 ° by, for example, a combination of bulky gears,
It can be transmitted to the second drive shaft 20. That is, the second driving device 22 is a driving device that drives the second driving shaft 20 via the rotating shaft 20a and the gear device 23.

As the second drive unit 22, an electric motor whose rotation speed can be easily controlled is used, but it is not limited to an electric motor, and an internal combustion engine may be used similarly to the first drive unit 12. Good. The electric motor is a first driving machine 1
2 can be driven by supplying the electric power generated by the driving of the second driving. The rotation speed of the second driving device 22 is adjusted according to the rotation speed of the first driving device 12 so as to be suitable for purposes such as high-efficiency propulsion performance, vibration and noise suppression. This adjustment is performed by a device that changes the rotation speed of the second driving device 22 in accordance with a change in the rotation speed of the first driving device 12 or the first driving device 12.
It can be provided with a control device that measures the rotation speed of the hull and the propulsion speed of the hull 100 and automatically controls the measured value according to the measured value.

The rudder section 103 is installed at the center of the stern of the hull 100 and is fixed to the hull 100.
a and a rudder horn 103b provided on the rudder horn 103a. The rudder 103b is driven by a rudder drive (not shown) provided in the rudder room 102 at the stern, and can change the traveling direction of the hull 100.

FIG. 2 shows another embodiment of the second driving device 24. In this embodiment, the second driving device 24
Is provided inside the rudder horn 103a of the rudder 103 provided on the hull 100, so that the second drive shaft 2
Since 0 is directly driven by the second driving device 24 to rotate the second propeller 21, it is possible to realize a device with high shaft system strength and few failures.

FIG. 3 is a view showing the hull 100 viewed from below, showing another embodiment of the second drive shaft 25. In this embodiment, since the second drive shaft 25 is supported by the support portion 104 fixed to the hull 100, as shown in FIG. 3, on both sides of the rudder portion 103 installed at the center of the stern of the hull 100,
The contra-rotating propeller devices can be arranged one by one. That is, even when the rudder 103 is not disposed behind the first drive shaft 10 and the rudder 103 for supporting the second drive shaft 25 is not provided, the provision of the support portion 104 enables the second drive. The shaft 25 can be supported. In this case, the second driving device 22 may be installed at an appropriate place such as inside the support portion 104 or on the boat.

The driving of the contra-rotating propeller device thus configured will be described. First, the first drive shaft 12 is driven by the first drive unit 12, and the first propeller 11
Rotates to give propulsion to the hull 100. At the same time, the second
Is driven by the second drive shaft 20 (25) to rotate the second propeller 21 in the opposite direction to the first propeller 11, and the rotation is caused by the rotation of the first propeller 11. It has the effect of eliminating the flow twist.

A first propeller 11 and a second propeller 21
By controlling the first driving device 12 and the second driving device 22 for driving the respective components separately, it is possible to adjust the rotation speed to an appropriate value.

As described above, the first propeller 11 and the second
Of the first drive unit 12 and the second drive unit 2
By driving each by 2 (24), there is no need for a contra-rotating gear unit or a double-shaft device that leads to an increase in the size of the device with a complicated mechanism, so maintenance costs, device manufacturing costs, and ship construction costs are low. A small contra-rotating propeller device can be realized.

The various shapes, combinations, and the like of the components shown in the above embodiment are merely examples, and can be variously changed based on design requirements without departing from the spirit of the present invention. In the above embodiment, a propulsion type contra-rotating propeller device provided on a ship is shown, but the present invention can also be applied to a traction type contra-rotating propeller device and a contra-rotating propeller device provided in an aircraft or the like. it can.

[0024]

As described above, in the contra-rotating propeller device according to the first aspect, the first propeller and the second propeller are driven by different driving machines, and the first driving shaft and the second driving shaft are connected to each other. By not using a double shaft structure for the drive shaft, a counter-rotating gear unit and a double shaft unit with a complicated mechanism become unnecessary,
The cost is low, space can be saved, and the rotation speed, start and stop of each propeller can be controlled independently. Further, since the mechanism is simple, the number of failures is small, and the maintenance cost can be suppressed. Further, since the engine room in which the first drive unit is installed can be shortened, it is possible to increase the space inside the ship and reduce the cost by downsizing the whole ship.

In the contra-rotating propeller device according to the second aspect, since one of the drive shafts is supported by the rudder, the propulsion performance of the boat is not reduced by the provision of the drive shaft support. A contra-rotating propeller device can be provided.

[0026] In the contra-rotating propeller device according to claim 3, further, by using an electric motor as a driving device,
The rotation speed of the propeller can be easily controlled.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of a contra-rotating propeller device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing another embodiment of the second driving device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing another embodiment of the contra-rotating propeller device in which the second drive shaft is not supported on the rudder portion.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 1st drive shaft 11 1st propeller 12 1st drive machine 20, 25 2nd drive shaft 20a Rotating shaft 21 2nd propeller 22, 24 2nd drive 23 Gear device 100 Hull 101 Engine room 102 Rudder room 103 Rudder 103a Rudder horn 103b Rudder 104 Support

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A first drive shaft and a second drive shaft which are arranged in series on the same straight line, and a first drive shaft and a first drive shaft which are provided to face each of the first drive shaft and the second drive shaft. And a second propeller through the first drive shaft and the second drive shaft,
A first drive unit and a second drive unit for rotating the propeller and the second propeller in directions opposite to each other. 2. The contra-rotating propeller device according to claim 1, wherein one of the first drive shaft and the second drive shaft is supported by a rudder provided on a hull. 3. The contra-rotating propeller device according to claim 1, wherein one of the first driving device and the second driving device is an electric motor.