Ship&Offshore | Issue 06/2017
Measuring underwater radiated noise from cavitating ship propellers
MARIN The world’s oceans are becoming increasingly noisy. With a steady increase of the commercial fleet since the 1960s, anthropogenic noise in the oceans has actually increased eightfold. This shows that ships are not only more numerous but that individual vessels have also become noisier due to increased size, speed and delivered power. This often leads to more cavitation, which is one of the main sources of underwater radiated noise (URN), write Frans Hendrik Lafeber, Thomas Lloyd and Johan Bosschers from the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN).
Recently, shipping noise has received regulatory attention. Class rules include noise limits for fishery and seismic research vessels because self-noise can influence the operability of such vessels. Nowadays, there are underwater radiated noise (URN)-related class notations for other ship types.