Electric Boat Corporation

Michael A Quadrini

Pieter James Van Dine

John H Chapman

Alberto Franco

R Scott Forney, Iii

In the embodiments described in the specification, a rim-driven propulsion pod arrangement has a cylindrical housing with a duct providing a flow path for water and a rotor assembly supported from a central shaft and containing a rotating blade row and driven by a rim drive permanent magnet motor recessed in the housing. An array of vanes downstream from the rotating blade row is arranged to straighten the flow of water emerging from the rotating blade row. Radial bearing members on the rotor have a hardness less than that of the shaft on which the rotor is supported and relatively soft protrusions are provided in the space between the rotor and the housing to limit excursion of the rotor. A thrust bearing has wedges arranged to form a water wedge between facing surfaces of the rotor and the rotor support during rotation of the rotor.

Rim-driven propulsion pod arrangement

A marine propulsion unit supported from a vessel by a strut contains an electric motor within a housing and a forward propeller driven by the electric motor and having a diameter larger than that of the housing. Hydrodynamic vanes projecting from the surface of the housing counteract tangential flow generated by the forward propeller. An aft section with a pair of counter-rotating blade rows driven by the electric motor is mounted at the rear of the housing and including a shroud surrounding the aft blade rows. The shroud is spaced from the housing so as to receive the boundary layer of liquid passing along the surface of the housing to inhibit cavitation and improve efficiency. Rearward portions of the shroud are movable to form a clamshell causing a reversal of the flow of the liquid passing through the shroud.

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Westerly, RI, United States of America

Michael A Quadrini