Taking into account the extraordinary damping effects that air bubbles have proven to have against erosive cavitation, Interprogetti Genova has undertaken a series of investigations, including tests on models and ships in full scale, to use such a technique for the purpose of reducing vibrations on the hull of the ship due to the pressure pulses induced by the propeller blades.

Regretfully, despite the satisfactory results observed during sea trials carried out on a large passenger ship which was provided with an air lubrication system (in this case mechanical and not natural air blowing was used), where either the wanted reduction of drag (EF abt. 1.05) and the vibration damping effect (EF abt. 1.3) where observed, the results achieved with models of ships purposely carried out to assess the effectiveness of the system on a small tanker were unsatisfactory (EF < 0.5) and showed that further attention is to be addressed to improve the design of the air blowing devices, to increase the Bernoulli’s effect and to better spread the parts to be protected.

Interprogetti Genova has been always dealing with research works with the aim of conceiving products of interest for the reference markets and taking care to characterize the conceived devices with “effectiveness factor” (“EF”) higher than 1 as much a s possible. Click here and discover more research and development work.