Rudder Design

Contents
1 Rudder design process 2
1.1 Influence of the propeller race . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2 Position of rudder stock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2 Applications 7
2.1 A spade rudder refrigerated banana carrier ship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

1
Rudder Design Maneuvering of marine vehicles

1 Rudder design process

This section is from Molland and Turnock, [2]. In the process of designing a rudder it is necessary
to identify the performance and design requirements, choose and apply a rudder with appropriate
geometric parameters and estimate its performance characteristics for the given flow conditions. The
overall rudder design process may then be summarized as follows:
1. Input rudder parameters
i. Number of rudders
ii. Rudder type
iii. Area
iv. Aspect ratio
v. Profile shape: taper ratio and sweep
vi. Chordwise section shape and thickness
vii. Position of stock, balance
viii. Rudder location relative to hull
ix. Rudder location relative to propeller
2. Input flow conditions
i. Effective inflow velocity
ii. Effective rudder incidence
3. Output data
i. CL over range of incidence
ii. CD over range of incidence
iii. CLmax
iv. αstall
v. Centre of pressure
vi. Pressure (load) distribution
Outcomes
The output data are used to derive rudder torque and bending moments to size the rudder stock
diameter, size the steering gear, estimate rudder scantlings from the load distributions and provide
lift and drag data for coursekeeping and manoeuvring simulations. An outline of the overall rudder
design flow path is shown in Fig. 1.

Number of rudders will depend on the ship type and service, or yacht or boat size and purpose.
In motor-propelled vessels, the number of rudders will generally follow the number of propellers. In
sailing yachts, the number will depend on the required total rudder area and performance require-
ments.

The rudder type will often be related to the ship type and stern arrangement. There are, however,
circumstances where alternatives may be available, such as the choice between an all movable spade-
type rudder, a full-skeg redder, or a semi-balanced skeg rudder. Typical reasons for choosing the
alternatives include hydrodynamic performance, structural design, layout and maintenance.

The rudder area would ideally be estimated using a coursekeeping and manoeuvring simulation
that would indicate the size of the rudder necessary to provide a certain level of steering performance.
In practice, this is generally not possible at the preliminary design stage when the stern arrangement,
propeller and rudder layouts are being decided. An alternative, and often used procedure, is to
estimate the area, generally based on a proportion of the immersed lateral area, from the area used
for similar ships with satisfactory steering properties. This has been found to be a satisfactory

S. H. Mousavizadegan 2 Amirkabir University of Technology

Assistant Professor Faculty of Marine Engineering
Rudder Design Maneuvering of marine vehicles

Figure 1: Rudder design flow path, from Molland and Turnock, [2]

S. H. Mousavizadegan 3 Amirkabir University of Technology

Assistant Professor Faculty of Marine Engineering
Rudder Design Maneuvering of marine vehicles

procedure for existing ship types and aft end layouts. Care must however be exercised if radical
changes to the aft end layout are applied, when more fundamental investigations may be necessary
including model tests and simulations.
The data in Table 1 offer guidance for a preliminary estimate of area for a range of coastal and
seagoing ships. Vessels such as tugs, trawlers, supply vessels, ferries and warships generally require
relatively larger rudder areas than seagoing merchant ships. The rudder area A is described in terms
of an approximation to the underwater lateral area (L × T ). The area A is the sum of the rudder
areas if more than one rudder is fitted.

ship type A
L×T

Single-screw merchant ships 0.016 − 0.018

Twin-screw merchant ships 0.016 − 0.022
Warships 0.024 − 0.028
Tugs, Trawlers etc 0.030 − 0.040

Table 1: Rudder area

DNV offers the following equation for merchant ships:

"  2 #
A 2 B
= 0.01 1 + 50CB (1)
L×T L

The following unequally equation may be applied to select the rudder area.
0.023 A 0.03
q ≤ ≤ q (2)
L
− 6.2 L×T L
CB B − 7.2
3 3
CB B

Aspect ratio may be deemed the most important parameter as far as hydrodynamic performance
is concerned, with increase in aspect ratio leading to an increase in overall hydrodynamic efficiency of
the control surface. In merchant ships, aspect ratio tends to evolve as a result of the rudder-propeller
layout. For example, if there are any draft limitations, then maintaining a required rudder area will
lead to an increase in rudder chord length and decrease in aspect ratio. Such low aspect ratios can
be seen on shallow draught inland waterway vessels. The shape of the hull above the rudder is
important in that it affects the aspect ratio used for the performance predictions. It should be noted
that an increase in aspect ratio for a spade rudder can lead to conflicting outcomes since it will lead
to an increase in rudder root bending moment, increase in root thickness for structural reasons and
a consequent decrease in hydrodynamic performance.
The geometrical aspect ration is defined as:
b2 b̄
ARG = or ARG = (3)
A c̄
The effective aspect ratio is depend on the gap between the root of the rudder and the hull of the
gap between the root of the rudder and the free surface of the water. The effective aspect ration
may be defined as:
ARE = kARG (4)
where k = 2 if there is no gap between the root of the ship’s hull.

Profile shape tends not to have a significant influence on hydrodynamic performance. Small
amounts of taper and sweep tend to be the norm.

S. H. Mousavizadegan 4 Amirkabir University of Technology

Assistant Professor Faculty of Marine Engineering
Rudder Design Maneuvering of marine vehicles

Section shape or better the choice of chordwise section shape will follow design requirements for
hydrodynamic performance. Standard aerofoil type sections are used in most cases, but specialized
sections may be employed where increased lift curve slope, delayed stall, low drag or the avoidance
of cavitation. Section thickness generally results from structural requirements.
The most popular section shape for the rudder are the NACA 00XX where are symmetrical
foils. The last two digits XX shows the thickness to chord ratio of the foil. Their thickness chord
ratios of the NACA 00XX are normally change between 0.06 to 0.24. For example a NACA airfoil
of 0008 shows a symmetrical foil with t/c = 0.08. The maximum thickness of NACA 00XX is at
%30 of the chord length from the leading edge. The free stream characteristics of different type of
foils may be found in Abbot and Doenhoff [1].
Using the free stream characteristics the lift and drag and torque characteristics of an airfoil may
be found in literatures such as Abbot and Doenhoff [1] for a given aspect ratio. Based on the rudder
area and the draft of the ship and the other restrictions, the geometrical and the effective aspect
ration of the rudder is obtained. Using the following formulae from Prantle the drag coefficient and
the angle of attack are corrected for rudder.
CL2
 
′ 1 1
CD = CD + −
π ARE AR′
 
′ CL 1 1
α=α + − (5)
π ARE AR′
The lift coefficient are shifted for the new angle of attack. The Table 2 shows the lift and drag and
torque coefficients for some NACA 00XX profiles with effective aspect ratio of ARE = 6.
α 0009 0012 0015 0018
o
CL CD CQ L CL CD CQ L CL CD CQ L CL CD CQ L

−4 −0.32 0.017 −0.08 −0.3 0.018 −0.075 −0.3 0.018 −0.075 −0.30 0.018 −0.075
−2 −0.15 0.010 −0.04 − 0.012 − −0.3 0.015 − −0.13 0.015 −
0 0.000 0.008 0.000 0.000 0.010 0.000 0.000 0.010 0.000 0.000 0.015 0.000
4 0.32 0.017 0.08 0.3 0.018 0.075 0.3 0.018 0.075 0.30 0.018 0.075
8 0.61 0.032 0.15 0.61 0.037 0.15 0.61 0.037 0.15 0.61 0.036 0.15
12 0.91 0.060 0.225 0.91 0.059 0.225 0.91 0.059 0.225 0.89 0.060 0.220
16 1.20 0.098 0.30 1.20 0.098 0.30 1.19 0.098 0.30 1.14 0.098 0.30
20 1.04 0.27 0.33 1.43 0.14 0.36 1.4 0.14 0.36 1.42 0.141 0.36
24 0.90 0.39 0.345 1.12 0.32 0.360 1.2 0.279 0.360 1.30 0.240 0.375

αstall 18o 22.2o 22.5o 22.5o

Table 2: Hydrodynamic characteristics of some NACA 00XX profiles with aspect ratio of
ARE = 6

After selecting the profile shape, the hydrodynamic characteristics of the rudder with the chosen
aspect ratio can be found using (5). The computations may be represented as given in table 3.

Data for AR′ = · · ·

CL2    
α′ ′
CD ′
CL ′
CQ 2
CL π
1
ARE − 1
AR′
CD 57.3
π CL
1
ARE − 1
AR′
α

Table 3: A tabular form to compute the hydrodynamic characteristics of a rudder profile

with ARE

S. H. Mousavizadegan 5 Amirkabir University of Technology

Assistant Professor Faculty of Marine Engineering
Rudder Design Maneuvering of marine vehicles

1.1 Influence of the propeller race

The propeller-induced velocity arriving at the rudder is a function of the propeller thrust loading
KT /J 2 and the distance b between the propeller and rudder. The velocity at the rudder at the part
of rudder that influence by the propeller race may be given by VRP and is obtained by:
( " 1/2 #)
8KT
VRP = Vo 1 + KR 1+ −1 (6)
πJ 2

where:
 
1 b
KR = 1+ (7)
2 b + 0.15D
The effective part of the rudder by the propeller race can be obtained by:
h i1/2
8KT 1/2


DR 1 + πJ 2 + 1
= ( (8)
D i  1/2
 )
h
8KT 1/2


2 1 + KR 1 + πJ 2 −1

The inflow velocity at those parts of the rudder outside the propeller race is equal the the water
velocity behind the ship’s hull or the advance velocity VA . The effect of the propeller on the rudder
performance may be given in a correction factor ξ that is obtained as follows.
 2    2
ARP VRP ARP VA
ξ= + 1− (9)
A v A v
In computation of forces and moments, this correction factor should be taken into account when
the rudder is placed behind the propeller race.
1
N = CN ρAv 2 ξ
2
1
QR = CQ ρAv 2 cξ (10)
2
Where v is the ship velocity.

1.2 Position of rudder stock

The non-dimensional coefficients of the rudder is computed for different angle of attack from 0o to
35o . The computation may be presented as given in Table 5. Using (??), it can be written that
QR = QL − N × x1 (11)
and in nondimensional form as:
x1
CQR = CQ L − CN × . (12)
c̄
The best position of rudder stock can be obtained by assuming different values for xc̄1 . It should
be something about %25 of the chord length. Therefore, The computation may carry out for
x1
c̄ = 0.2 − 0.3 to obtain the best position of rudder stock. It may be presented as given in table ??.

S. H. Mousavizadegan 6 Amirkabir University of Technology

Assistant Professor Faculty of Marine Engineering
Rudder Design Maneuvering of marine vehicles

α CL CD CQ L CN = CL cos α + CD sin α

0o

5o

10o

15o

20o

25o

30o

35o

Table 4: Computation of force coefficients at different angle of attacks

x1 /c = 0.2 ··· ··· x1 /c = 0.3

α CQ CN CQR CQR CQR CQR

o
0

5o

10o

15o

20o

25o

30o

35o

Table 5: Computation of force coefficients at different angle of attacks

2 Applications
2.1 A spade rudder refrigerated banana carrier ship
The ship has following characteristics
Lpp = 134.00 m Lw = 128.33 m
B = 21.40 m T = 6.75 m
∇ = 10750.00 m3 CB = 0.556 m
CM = 0.977 m S = 3090.00 m2
Do = 5.050 m =⇒ The propeller diameter
KT = 0.1549 J = 0.66
V = 21 knots =⇒ The ship speed
w = 0.223 =⇒ wake fraction coefficient
VA = 16.317 knots =⇒ Advanced velocity

S. H. Mousavizadegan 7 Amirkabir University of Technology

Assistant Professor Faculty of Marine Engineering
Rudder Design Maneuvering of marine vehicles

• Rudder area:
The range of the variation of rudder area is obtained by using (2).
0.023 A 0.03 A
q ≤ ≤ q =⇒ 0.0139 ≤ ≤ 0.0196
3 128.33
− 6.2 L×T 3 128.33
− 7.2 L×T
0.556·21.40 0.556·21.40

Using (1).
"  2 #
A 21.40 A
= 0.01 1 + 50 · 0.5562 =⇒ = 0.0143 =⇒ A = 12.40 m2
L×T 128.33 L×T

This may be selected as the first choice for the the rudder area. We select the average of the
maximum minimum value obtain by (2) as the first for rudder area. Therefore,
A
= 0.01675 =⇒ A = 14.51 m2
L×T

• Aspect ratio and the shape of the rudder: The dimensions of a rudder is assign by using
the shape of the stern of the ship. It is desired to have a larger aspect ratio but it is also
desired to use as much as possible area of the rudder in front of the propeller stream. The
propeller diameter is Do = 5.050 m. It is considered that the root of the rudder is at 1.5 m
from the free-surface and there is a gap of 0.2 m at the tip of the rudder. Therefore, the span
of the rudder is:
b = 6.75 − (0.2 + 1.5) = 5.05 m
The mean chord length is:
14.51
c̄ = = 2.88 m
5.05
The geometrical aspect ratio is:
5.05
ARG =
= 1.753
2.88
The effective aspect ratio is depend on the gap between the rudder root and the free surface
or the ship’s hull.
ARE = kARG
The investigations indicate that in going from zero gap, with k = 2, to a gap of 0.005c̄, k drops
to 1.9 A gap of 5 mm is probably more realistic for a 450 − mm chord rudder, or 10 mm for a
900 − mm chord rudder. It is assumed that there is a gap of 0.2 m at the root of the rudder
and therefore,
root gap 0.2
= = 0.07 =⇒ k ≈ 1.5
c̄ 2.88
where k is obtained from Fig. 2. The effective aspect ratio is:
ARE = kARG = 1.5 × 1.753 = 2.63

• Chordwise section shape: The NACA 0015 is selected for the chordwise profile shape of
the rudder. The free stream hydrodynamic characteristics of the rudder may be obtained by
taking into account the data given in table 2 and (5).
The computations may be represented in following table.
The hydrodynamic properties at stall angle for the NACA 0015 profile with ARE = 2.63 may
be obtained by linear interpolation.
Cpc stall
αstall = 27.46o, CD stall = 0.338, CL stall = 1.4876, = 0.2640
c
The free stream hydrodynamic characteristics of the rudder for different rudder angel is as
follows. They are also depicted in Fig. 3.

S. H. Mousavizadegan 8 Amirkabir University of Technology

Assistant Professor Faculty of Marine Engineering
Rudder Design Maneuvering of marine vehicles

Figure 2: Influence of rudder root gap on effective aspect ratio,

from Molland and Turnock, [2]

Data for AR′ = 6 · · ·

CL2
57.3
 π ×   π CL × 
′ ′ ′ ′ 2 1 1 1 1 ′ cpc
α CL CD CQ CL ARE − AR ′ CD ARE − AR′ α CL = CL c

0o 0.00 0.010 0.000 0.0000 0.000 0.010 0.00 0.00o 0.00 0.00

o −3 o
4 0.30 0.019 0.075 0.0900 6.118 × 10 0.0251 1.17 5.17 0.30 0.2495

o −2 o
8 0.61 0.037 0.150 0.3721 2.53 × 10 0.0623 2.38 10.38 0.61 0.2462

12o 0.91 0.059 0.225 0.8281 5.63 × 10−2 0.1153 3.54 15.54o 0.91 0.2493

16o 1.19 0.098 0.300 1.4161 9.63 × 10−2 0.1943 4.63 20.63o 1.19 0.2462

o −1 o
20 1.40 0.140 0.360 1.9600 1.33 × 10 0.2732 5.45 25.45 1.40 0.2562

o −2 o
24 1.20 0.279 0.360 1.4400 9.79 × 10 0.3769 4.67 28.67 1.20 0.2476

cpc
α CL CD c

0o 0.0000 0.0099 0.0000

o
5 0.3 0.025 0.2374
o
10 0.6 0.062 0.2553
o
15 0.9 0.115 0.2509

20o 1.19 0.194 0.2579

25o 1.4 0.273 0.2862

30o 1.1 0.4 0.3262

• Influence of propeller race on the rudder

The rudder is placed behind the propeller at a position b = 0.1 × Do from the rudder. The
propeller is a 4-bladed propeller with

KT = 0.1549, J = 0.66

S. H. Mousavizadegan 9 Amirkabir University of Technology

Assistant Professor Faculty of Marine Engineering
Rudder Design Maneuvering of marine vehicles

Using (7) and (??), it can be written that

   
1 b 1 0.1Do
KR = 1+ = 1+ = 0.7
2 b + 0.15D 2 0.1Do + 0.15Do
h i1/2 h i1/2
8KT 1/2 8·0.1549 1/2



DR 1 + πJ 2 + 1 1 + π·0.66 2 + 1
=( )1/2 = (  = 0.97
Do i  1/2
  )
h i h
8KT 1/2 1/2
2 1 + 0.7 1 + 8·0.1549



2 1 + KR 1 + πJ 2 −1 π·0.662 −1

Therefore, the area of rudder behind the propeller is:

ARP = 0.97 × 5.05 × 2.63 = 12.88 m2

The correction factor is obtained from (9).

( " 1/2 #)
8 · 0.1549
VRP = 21 1 + 0.7 1 + −1 = 26.60 knots
π · 0.662
 2   2
12.88 26.60 12.88 16.317
ξ= + 1− = 1.492
14.51 21 14.51 21

cpc
α CL CD CN c

0o 0.0000 0.0149 0.0000 0.0000

5o 0.4476 0.0375 0.3005 0.2374

o
10 0.9101 0.0929 0.6087 0.2553
o
15 1.3577 0.1720 0.9007 0.2509
o
20 1.7755 0.2898 1.1672 0.2579
o
25 2.0888 0.4077 1.3576 0.2862
o
30 1.7904 0.5623 1.2061 0.3262

S. H. Mousavizadegan 10 Amirkabir University of Technology

Assistant Professor Faculty of Marine Engineering
Rudder Design Maneuvering of marine vehicles

• Position of the rudder stock

The position of the rudder stock from the leading edge with respect to the chord length is
denoted by ac . It is assumed the position of the rudder stock is varied between ac = 0.22 ÷ 0.27
to obtain the proper position of the rudder stock. The torque coefficient about the rudder
stock is obtained by
cpc a
CQR = CN ( − ).
c c
The suitable position of the rudder stock is at a/c = 0.293.

a/c

0.22 0.23 0.24 0.25 0.26 0.27 0.28 0.29 0.30

cpc
α CN c CQR CQR CQR CQR CQR CQR CQR CQR CQR
o
0 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
o
5 0.4704 0.2374 0.0082 0.0038 −0.0012 0.0060 −0.0107 −0.0154 −0.0201 −0.0248 −0.0295
o
10 0.9484 0.2553 0.0336 0.0241 0.0146 0.0051 −0.0044 −0.0139 −0.0234 −0.0329 −0.0424
o
15 1.4169 0.2509 0.0431 0.0289 0.0148 0.0006 −0.0136 −0.0277 −0.0419 −0.0561 −0.0702
o
20 1.8561 0.2579 0.0703 0.0517 0.0331 0.0146 −0.0040 −0.0225 −0.0411 −0.0597 −0.0782

25o 1.9706 0.2862 0.1305 0.1108 0.0911 0.0714 0.0517 0.032 0.0123 −0.0074 −0.0271

30o 1.9189 0.3262 0.2038 0.1846 0.1654 0.1462 0.1270 0.1078 0.0866 0.0694 0.0502

0.25

|CQ− |

CQ+
0.2
CQ+ , |CQ− |

0.15

0.1

0.05

0
0.22 0.23 0.24 0.25 0.26 0.27 0.28 0.29 0.3
a/c

Figure 3: Position of the rudder stock

References
[1] I. H. Abbot and A. E. Doenhoff, Theory of wing sections, Dover Publisher, New York, 1958.
[2] A. F. Molland and S. R. Turnock, marine rudder and control surfaces, 2007.

S. H. Mousavizadegan 11 Amirkabir University of Technology

Assistant Professor Faculty of Marine Engineering