Abstract
Recently, rudder erosion due to cavitation has been frequently reported on a semi-spade rudder of a high-speed large ship. This problem raises economic and safety issues when operating ships. The semi-spade rudders have a gap between the horn/pintle and the movable wing part. Due to this gap, a discontinuous surface, cavitation phenomenon arises and results in unresolved problems such as rudder erosion. In this study, we made a rudder model for 2-D experiments using the NACA0020 and also manufactured gap flow blocking devices to insert to the gap of the model. In order to study the gap flow characteristics at various rudder deflection angles($5^{\circ}$, $10^{\circ}$, $35^{\circ}$) and the effect of the gap flow blocking devices, we carried out the velocity measurements using PIV(Particle Image Velocimetry) techniques and cavitation observation using high speed camera in Seoul National University cavitation tunnel. To observe the gap cavitation on a semi-spade rudder, we slowly lowered the inside pressure of the cavitation tunnel until cavitation occurred near the gap and then captured it using high-speed camera with the frame rate of 4300 fps(frame per second). During this procedure, cavitation numbers and the generated location were recorded, and these experimental data were compared with CFD results calculated by commercial code, Fluent. When we use gap flow blocking device to block the gap, it showed a different flow character compared with previous observation without the device. With the device blocking the gap, the flow velocity increases on the suction side, while it decreases on the pressure side. Therefore, we can conclude that the gap flow blocking device results in a high lift-force effect. And we can also observe that the cavitation inception is delayed.
