Adaptive Composite Marine Propulsors and Turbines: Progress and Challenges

In this paper, the advantages, state-of-the-art, and current challenges in the field of adaptive composite marine propulsors and turbines are reviewed. Adaptive composites are used in numerous marine technologies, including propulsive devices and control surfaces for marine vessels, offshore platforms, unmanned surface and underwater vehicles, and renewable energy harvesting devices. In the past, most marine propulsors and turbines have been designed as rigid bodies, simplifying the design and analysis process; however, this can lead to significant performance decay when operating in off-design conditions or in spatially or temporally varying flows. With recent advances in computational modeling, materials research, and manufacturing, it is possible to take advantage of the flexibility and anisotropic properties of composites to enable passive morphing capabilities to delay cavitation and improve overall energy efficiency, agility, and dynamic stability. Moreover, active materials can be embedded inside composites to enable energy harvesting, in situ health and condition monitoring, mitigation and control of flow-induced vibrations, and further enhancements of system performance. However, care is needed in the design and testing of adaptive composite marine propulsors and turbines to account for the inherent load-dependent deformations and to avoid potential material failures and hydroelastic instabilities (resonance, parametric excitations, divergence, flutter, buffeting, etc.). Here, we provide a summary of recent progress in the modeling, design, and optimization of adaptive composite marine propulsors and turbines, followed by a discussion of current challenges and future research directions.