[HN Gopher] Toroidal propellers: A noise-killing game changer in...
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       Toroidal propellers: A noise-killing game changer in air and water
        
       Author : bookofjoe
       Score  : 39 points
       Date   : 2023-01-28 16:04 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (newatlas.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (newatlas.com)
        
       | batuhandirek wrote:
       | I mean propellers are around for a long time, I cannot believe no
       | one thought about optimizing their tip vortice energy loss.
        
         | karmakaze wrote:
         | This is so simple and brilliant. It's like the winglets on
         | planes but so much more so.
         | 
         | Just looking at it says _efficiency_ and power.
        
           | julienfr112 wrote:
           | the equivalent for plane wing would be to have two wings on
           | each side connected like that :
           | 
           | ---------\ | ---------/
        
             | beecafe wrote:
             | Those exist too! Every so often NASA tries it out.
        
       | harrydehal wrote:
       | When life imitates art; highly recommend "The Hunt for Red
       | October" (adapted from Tom Clancy's 1984 novel) about the Soviet
       | Unions' secret development of a new type of submarine that proves
       | to be undetectable to passive sonar.
        
         | beecafe wrote:
         | There are MHD ship drives like the one the submarine has! But
         | they're very inefficient so far.
        
       | jwsteigerwalt wrote:
       | There are disruption opportunities everywhere. A fresh
       | perspective is a critical skill in our ML dominated future.
        
       | Gordonjcp wrote:
       | Here's a prediction - just like the past few times these have
       | been posted, the thread will soon fill up with people saying
       | they're impractical because they'd be too hard to cast, too
       | expensive to CNC mill, and too weak if 3D-printed, because it
       | hasn't occurred to them that you cast the prop hub, forge the
       | blades, and weld them.
        
         | nicwolff wrote:
         | Or cast the front and back halves of the propeller and weld the
         | hub and tips.
        
       | rasz wrote:
       | >20% boost in range
       | 
       | would that work scaled up to a container ship? Those burn ~$100K
       | of fuel per day, even 10% more efficient propellers could have
       | ROE of one ~30 day round trip.
        
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       (page generated 2023-01-28 23:02 UTC)