SNAME Propeller Symposium

HydroComp Web Log

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SNAME Propeller Symposium
Miscellaneous Musings from the Technical Director

Monday, 18-SEP-2006 by Donald MacPherson - Technical Director

Well, I'm back from another trip to the tri-annual SNAME Propeller Symposium. This gathering of propeller professionals is always a good time to see HydroComp's customers (Adrián Sarasquete of Balino), old school mates (Pete Lapp of Rolls-Royce Naval Marine and Steve Shepstone of MAPECO), and past professors and mentors (Jacques Hadler of Webb Institute). I even was able to spend time with a past HydroComp "alumni" - Thad Michael of Carderock, who worked on the first version of PropExpert back in 1995 as a university intern. Of course, meeting new people from various parts of the propeller community is always rewarding.

This symposium felt different from ones in the past - although I'm not quite sure why. There were the usual collection of CFD-related topics, with a number about podded propulsors and composite propellers. Two papers of particular interest to me were about newly proposed blade sections for high-speed propellers and the effect on performance on anti-singing edges.

A very nice addition to the symposium was the participant's dinner at the Mariner's Museum in Newport News. The dinner itself was the usual buffet fare, but the museum is truly a special place. We had a "backstage" look at the new conservation laboratory and the museum's efforts for the recovery of the civil war ironclad USS Monitor. The small craft center is also very nicely done, and the miniatures are just remarkable. It has been a number of years since I had last visited the museum, and it truly ranks with some of the world's best.