Objectives  This article presents an experimental study of the flow-induced vibration of propeller blades under periodic inflow, and the dependence of the response on its modes.

  Methods  Two seven-bladed highly skewed model propellers of identical proportions but different material are operated in four-cycle and six-cycle inflows to produce a blade vibratory strain response. Two kinds of wire mesh wake screens located 400 mm upstream of the propeller plane are used to generate the four-cycle and six-cycle inflows. A laser Doppler velocimetry system located 100 mm downstream of the wake screen plane is used to measure the axial velocity distributions produced by the wake screens. Strain gauges are attached to the propeller blades at different positions. The data from the strain gauges quantifies the excitation frequencies induced by the wake screens. It is shown that the response will reach peak axial propeller frequency, four times axial propeller frequency and six times axial propeller frequency under uniform inflow, four-cycle inflow and six-cycle inflow respectively.

  Results  The effect of resonance on the vibratory strain response is revealed. When six times axial propeller frequency induced by six-cycle inflow coincides with the natural frequency of a flexible propeller, the response of the propeller is at its greatest.

  Conclusions  This research reveals that when designing a propeller, it is not sufficient to only focus on its hydrodynamic properties; the effects of the modes of the propeller should also be considered.