Experimental investigations of turbulent decaying behaviors in the core-flow region of a propeller wake

This work investigates the turbulent decaying behaviors downstream of a propeller in the core-flow region. Both axial and tangential velocity fluctuations behind a two-bladed propeller were measured using a stationary hot-wire probe. Unexpectedly, the complex near-wake core-flow of the propeller is found to show a similar decay characteristic of homogeneous turbulence, such as grid turbulence. The decay of turbulence intensity is found to be dominated by the level of periodic velocity fluctuations, showing a similar behavior of the homogenous and isotropic turbulence. This turbulent decaying behavior of the core-flow can be adopted for future turbulent modeling techniques.