FEATURE I ARTICLE

Propulsion of the Putt-Putt Boat - I

V Sharadha and Jaywant H Arakeri

Introduction

The putt-putt boat is a little toy that has fascinated everyone

from children to physicists for over a hundred years now. This
boat is powered, not by a conventional heat engine, but by a
motor that can be termed a pulsating water jet engine.
V Sharadha is a III year
mechanical engineering The propulsion mechanism that drives the putt-putt boat uses
student at Indian simple physical principles in an ingenious way. It basically
Institute of Technology, consists of a small shallow chamber, covered by a thin copper
Chennai. This work was
diaphragm. This is connected to the water astern of the boat by
done when she was
JNCASR summer fellow two pipes of 3mm bore (See Figure 1). The two pipes are initially
in 2003 at IISc. primed with water and the base of the chamber heated, using a
candle. The diaphragm begins to vibrate and the boat moves
forward making the characteristic putt-putt sound. The boat
works as long as the flame glows.

Experiments and Observations

Jaywant H Arakeri is The aim of the experiments was to answer questions that imme-
Professor at Mechanical
diately comes to one's mind: what causes the putt-putt sound,
Engineering Department
and in the Center for
and is it somehow responsible for the propulsion? Are two pipes
Product Development necessary for the boat operation?
and Manufacture at
Indian Institute of Set-up
Science, Bangalore. His
The apparatus basically consists of a small glass tank. For flow
research is mainly in
instability and the visualization, a high-speed camera (Kodak Motion Corder Analy-
turbulence in fluid flows. zer) was run at (See Box 1) of 500 frames per second(fps)/1000fps.
Both hydrogen bubbles and silica particles (100 microns) were
used as tracers.
Keywords
Fluid dynamics, thermodynamiCS .

Figure 1. Sketch of the putt-

putt boat.

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66 'V V VVV v RESONANCE I June 2004
 FEATURE I ARTICLE

Box 1. Experimental Techniques Employed

Hydrogen-Bubble Visualization

Flow visualization using hydrogen bubbles is a simple and popular method to study flow patterns.

Hydrogen bubbles produced by the electrolysis of water are used as tracer particles. Hydrogen is liberated
at the cathode and oxygen at the anode. The quantity of the bubbles produced depends on the ion
concentration in the water. Hence, electrolytes such as sodium chloride or sodium sulphate are added. The
cathode (in our case a thin metal wire) is placed at the region of interest and the flow patterns are studied.

Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV)

This is a relatively newer technique of measuring velocities in a flow. The flow is seeded with neutrally
buoyant particles which indicate the underlying fluid motion. The flow is recorded as successive frames
on a camera at known time intervals. Corresponding flow regions in the successive frames are correlated
to obtain the velocities.

A low-friction pulley system, a microphone and a larger tank

were used respectively for thrust, frequency and the steady-state
boat velocity measurements.

Observations

We can usefully think of the boat operation as consisting of two

phases, suction and exhaust. During suction water from the
outside enters the pipes; during the exhaust phase an equal
amount of water is thrown out. We will see in the next part how
a constant source of heat produces this periodic cycle of ejection
and suction.

Improved flow visualization patterns were obtained with hydro-

gen bubbles as compared with the silica particles used in PIV.

The jets formed are approximately one centimeter below the free
surface of the water. The two jets are in phase. The frequency of
ejection obtained was 16 Hz, with a jet exit velocity of 41cm/s.
The average steady-state velocity of the boat was approximately The boat operation
20cm/s. consists of two
phases, suction
An average weight of 600 mg was found to balance the mean
and exhaust.
thrust produced by the boat. Addition or reduction of 20 mg

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RESONANCE I June 2004 67
 FEATURE I ARTICLE

The putt-putt resulted in the loss of equilibrium. This can be attributed to the
sound seems to change in the direction of the frictional force in the pulley,
originate from the which is therefore less than 19.6 dynes (0.19mN), and this is
vibratory motion of small compared to the thrust measured. The thrust is thus about
'the diaphragm. 6 milli-Newtons (mN).

The putt-putt sound seems to originate from the vibratory

motion of the diaphragm, as it changes its configuration from
concavity to convexity and back (ie., during suction and ejection
strokes respectively). (See Box 2.) The diaphragm was thickened
to reduce its amplitude of vibration and to observe its effect on
the boat's motion. M-seal was used to restrict its vibration. The
velocities of the unmodified and modified boats were found to
be around 20 cm/s. Thus the thickening of the diaphragm

Box 2. Boat Frequency Measurements

The diaphragm is the source of the putt-putt sound, as the sound disappears when the diaphragm is
thickened using m-seal. The sound of the boat was recorded onto a computer and the frequency of the putt-
putting was measured to be 16Hz on an average. That is to say, the suction and ejection strokes take place
16 times a second. Each putt is like an impulise loading on the diaphagram and produced high frequency
oscillations in the sound which is what we hear. Video recordings of the diaphragm were performed later
to validate the frequency, measured from the microphone output.

Figure A shows a plot of

0 .8
two cycles of the 'putt-
0 .6 i
I putt' sound recorded.
0 .4 :
One cycle of the boat's
operation can be thought
o to be composed of an
-0 .2 ejection and suction.
-0 . 4 Thus, the two bursts of
-0 . 6
pulses in a cycle that we
see in this figure can be
thought of as correspond-
ing to the outflow and
Figure A. Plot of normalized amplitude of the sound recorded, inflow phases.
vs. time.

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 FEATURE I ARTICLE

resulted in a perfectly operable, though noiseless putt-putt boat. Thickening of the

The jet's motion seems unaffected by the diaphragm's presence diaphragm
as the boat works just the same with an inflexible boiler top. As resulted in a
to whether the motion of the diaphragm and the jet are in phase perfectly operable,
is yet to be determined conclusively. though noiseless
putt-putt boat.
One of the pipes was plugged using a paper-wrapped matchstick
and the boat was tested. The thrust produced was small and
eventually the boat couldn't sustain operation. To observe 1:he
effect of the length of the pipes, a pair of 3cm long PVC tubes was
used to lengthen them. The diaphragm frequency in this case
was reduced to 13Hz approximately and the boat velocity also
reduced to about 11 crn/s.

Principle of Operation

The boat is propelled forward by the alternate suction and

ejection of the fluid across its pipes' orifice. The net mass flux is
zero. Yet, there is a net forward thrust developed because,
during the outflow, the flow is an axi-symmetric jet confined to
a narrow domain and does not diverge much for reasonable
distances, as in the exhaust from an automobile (Figure 2).

The nominally axi-symmetric flow during suction can be thought

of as similar to the flow induced by a sink that is coincident with
Figure 2 (top). During ex-
the pipe exit (Figure 3). The inflow of the same magnitude does haust.
not produce an equal and opposite thrust, and is small compared Figure 3 (bottom). During
to the thrust produced during exhaust. suction.

The difference between inflow and outflow is important in

the study of fluid mechanics. It can be easily seen that we
can easily 'blowout' a candle but cannot 'suck out' a candle
even though the average velocity near the lips is nearly the
same in each case (see Box 3).

Analysis

The analysis is basically carried out in two stages. In the

following fluid mechanics section, we will analyze the forces
that are instrumental in driving the boat. When the boat is

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 FEATURE I ARTICLE

Box 3. Inflow and Outflow

The difference bet\\ieen inflow and outflow is an

important one in the analysis of a fluid tlow
problems. During outflow the fluid comes out
straight as ajet - a familiar example is a smoke
laden exhaust from an automobile. As a conse-
quence the pressure P e across thejet near the exit
is the atmospheric pressure P".( Further down-
stream ambient fluid gets dragged by thejet fluid
and mixes with it and the jet grO\vs.) Clearly
Bernoulli's equation which would give

Figure B. (top) Out flow. Flow comes out like a

is not applicable; Ue is the exit velocity.
jet.
Figure C. (bottom) Flow enters from all around.
During inflow fluid particles are drawn in from
all directions. In this case, Bernoulli's equation
is valid

P, + ll2pU] = P+ 1/2pU 2 .

The pressure far enough away from the inlet is Pa and the velocity is zero. Thus pressure at the inlet

where C( is the velocity at the inlet.

Viscosity is responsible for the difference between the inflO\v and the outflow flow patterns. For an ideal
fluid (viscosity = 0) the flow patterns in both cases would be alike: during outflow the flow would be like
the one shown in Figure C but with the tlow directions reversed. For the outflow case the pressure would
increase from a minimum value at the exit to the ambient value. In particular the flow next to the surface
will experience an increasing pressure. Consider a small ·piece of a fluid flowing next to the surface
(Figure D). This particle is finding increasing pressure values on its path and slowing do\'v·n: at the same
time fluid friction is also opposing the motion. The increasing
pressure in the flow direction is known as adverse pressure gradi-
ent. The fluid particle cannot overcome this double barrier of
pressure and friction.

Figure D. A fluid particle trying to go around a corner will be

opposed by viscous friction and pressure. Thus the flow will not be
able to go around the corner, but go straight out as in Figure B.

Box 3. continued. ..

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 FEATURE I ARTICLE

Box 3. continued. ..

Any fluid however small its viscosity flowing past a surface in the presence of an adverse pressure gradient
will separate. In the case of inflow, pressure is reducing in the flow direction (favorable pressure gradient)
and flow does not separate; pressure is now aiding the motion. Figure E dramatically shows the difference
between inflow and outflow.

This phenomenon of separation was first explained by Prandt!' Separation is in fact needed to explain the
high drag forces on 'bluff bodies'. (See [4])

One consequence of the difference between inflow and outflow: we can.easily blowout a candle flame but
not suck it oULTry it ! Also, because of this difference we
do not inhale the same air that was exhaled in the previous
breathing cycle.

The above discussion is valid for low viscosity fluids (like

water), or more correctly for high Reynolds number flows.
For highly viscous flow the physics is quite different.

Figure E. Streamlines of flow through a channel which

first converges and then diverges.

moving with a constant velocity the thrust averaged over one

cycle is equal to the drag, caused by viscous stresses and the
surface waves on the water.

N ow, for ease of calculation, we consider Variable description:

inflow and outflow separately. The averages
Density p
are still taken over one full cycle. During
Area of the exit plane a
outflow, the jet being almost perpendicular
Acceleration of the
to the orifice area, the pressure at the exit can
reference frame art
be approximated to the ambient static pres-
Volume of the control volume V
sure. It is during the outflow phase that
Surface forces Fs
almost all of the thrust is produced. But
Body forces Fb
during inflow, the fluid will enter from all
Velocity of the mass leaving
sides and the pressure at the tube inlet will be
the control volume U
lower than the surrounding pressure. The
Drag force D
thrust during inflow is likely to be small. See
Velocity of the boat Ux
Classroom section (p.92) of this issue of Reso-
Jet velocity Ue
nance for a detailed analysis.

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RESONANCE June 2004 V VVV 71 v v-
 FEATURE I ARTICLE

Box 4. Fluid Mechanical Analysis

Using the momentum conservation equation,

r~\. + Fb - far! p dV = f U pU . da + ~(f U p dV) .

I' cs at v
After the boat has attained uniform velocity,
along the x-direction,

Fh = 0
F, = f r da. i = D
arf = 0

Upon averaging over a cycle of operation,

-~(f U pdV)=O.
at v
Using the notation,

r1 fo G dt
J
= (G),

the momentum conservation equation becomes,

(!-~x)= f (U.ipU.da)+ f (pda.i).

During outflow. this equation becomes

During suction,

Therefore the average drag force (D);:::; fX1(U;) = (thrust), under steady-state conditions. Drag can also
be given in terms or the drag coefficient ej)' as,

'
I) = ( J) ("21 pu,,2 /1),
x where Cf) can be obtai ned from correlations.

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 FEATURE I ARTICLE

The thrust force on the boat is given by, Suggested Reading

(thrust)=pz ([Y) (see Box 4 and Classroom, p.92). [1] I Finnie and R L Curl, Phys-
ics in a toy boat, American
The angular brackets indicate average over one cycle; p is the Journal of Physics, Vol. 31,
p. 289, 1962.
water density, a is jet area and Ve is jet velocity. The thrust is
[2] J S Miller, Physics in a toy
equal to the drag force. boat, American Journal of
Physics, Vol. 26,p.199, 1958.
From the velocity measured as 41 cm/s, the thrust calculations [3] Leo Lazauskas, John Win-
yield a value of 5.2mN for the thrust on the boat. This value ters, E 0 Tuck, Hydrody-
compares well with the measured thrust values. namic drag of small sea kay-
aks, Courtesy: www.maths.
Modelling the boat as a flat plate, gives drag coefficient (CD) adelaide.edu.au
[4] Jaywant H Arakeri and P N
value of 0.0079, which yields a drag of 0.88 mN, when calculated
Shankar, Ludwig Prandtl
using the wetted area. Using the values given for a kayak [3] and and Boundary Layers in
matching the Reynolds number of the toy boat and a kayak, we Fluid Flow, Resonance,
obtain a CD value of about 0.045 and a drag force of around Vol.5, No.12,pp.48-63, 2000.

5.02mN which agrees quite well with the measured thrust value.

Conclusions

The putt-putt boat's operation has two phases, ejection and

suction. During ejection water is thrown out of the pipes, and
dur-ing suction an equal quantity of water is injested. Even
though the net mass flow is zero, the differences in the flow
patterns during outflow and inflow cause a net forward thrust;
thrust is mainly produced during ejection phase. Address for Correspondence
V Sharadha
Neglecting the suction part of the cycle for dynamic analysis of III Year
the boat agrees quite well with the experimental data obtained. Mechanical Engineering
Moreover, modeling the boat as a kayak, rather than a flat plate Student
Indian Institute of Technology
gives a better drag estimate. The diaphragm just makes the putt-
Chennai 600 036
putt sound and is not involved in the propulsion. Jaywant H Arakeri
Mechanical Engineering
In the second part, the thermodynamic process involved in Department
generating the thrust and drag forces will be dealt with. Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore 560 012, India.
Email:
[email protected]

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