Abstract
The horn and movable parts around the gap of the conventional semi-spade rudder are visualized by high speed CCD camera with the frame rate of 4000 fps (frame per second) to study the unsteady cavity pattern on the rudder surface and gap. In addition, the pressure measurements are conducted on the rudder surface and inside the gap to find out the characteristics of the flow behavior. The rudder without propeller wake is tested at the range of $1.0{\leq}{\sigma}_v\;1.6$ and at the rudder deflection angle of $-8{\leq}{\theta}{\leq}10^{\circ}$. The time resolved cavity images are captured and show strong cavitation around the rudder gap in all deflection angles. As the deflection angle gets larger, the flow separated from the horn surface increases the strength of cavitation. The accelerated flow along the horn decreases its pressure and the separated flow from the horn increases the pressure abruptly. The pressure distribution inside the gap reveals the flow moving from the pressure to suction side. In the negative deflection angle, the turning area on the movable part initiates the flow separation and cavitation on it.