A preliminary study of an external-field-type MHD thruster for ship propulsion

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a new magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) thruster configuration for ship propulsion. The first prototype of a MHD-driven surface ship, Yamato-1, was built in 1991\cite{Takezawa1995}; it employed inner duct-type MHD thrusters. In terms of propulsion efficiency, Yamato-1 was not competitive with conventional screw propeller ships. To achieve higher competitiveness, the use of an external field-type MHD propulsion system is proposed. Although the external field-type system has drawbacks of weak magnetic fields and complex shielding configurations, they are potentially outweighed by the flexibility of installation afforded by the design , the improved flow field, and the possibility of a higher wake gain. The proposed concept was investigated by computational and experimental methods.