24 .1111.1 1978 Lab. v. Scheefsbamikande PUBL. NO.

528
OF THE N.S.M.B.
ARCH IEF Technische Hogeschool
Reprinted from the Journal of Navigation, Bdit, No. 1, January £978

DRIFT ANGLE AND ITS

CONSEQUENCES IN SHIP
MANCEUVRES

K Meurs
(Netherlands Ship Model Basin)

Agi Ii.0"
/
,e)

THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF NAVIGATION

AT THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY
KENSINGTON GORE LONDON SW7
 Drift Angle and its Consequences
in Ship Manoeuvres
K. Meurs
(Netherlands Ship Model Basin)

I . INTRODUCTION. When manceuvring ships, mariners usually pay a

great deal of attention to the rate at which the heading changes but the
direction in which the ship actually moves may differ from the direction
in which she is heading. This difference may be caused not only by cur-
rent but also by the ship's drift velocity through the water in a direction
perpendicular to the heading. This velocity is hard to recognize but can
cause a turning moment on the ship, whether this is desired or not. In
difficult manceuvres which cannot always be accomplished by changes of
heading only, one can use the effects of this drift velocity. The drift angle,
the angle between the heading and the direction in which the centre of
gravity moves through the water, must not be confused with the course
allowance necessary to make good a track over the ground when there is a
current.
FORCES EXERTED BY THE WATER. Besides the longitudinal resistance,
which is compensated by the propulsion, other forces will be exerted on a
moving ship, including rudder forces, drift forces and forces due to the
turning of the ship. When a ship sailing in still water has a certain lateral
velocity, one can conceive the flow around the ship as the flow around a
profile at an angle of attack that conforms to the drift angle (Fig. I).
The lift force L (the force perpendicular to the direction of flow) and
the induced resistance D (in the direction opposite to the ship's direction
of motion), which are both caused by the drift angle 13, will result in a
lateral force on the ship Y(B), a longitudinal force X($) and a turning
moment N(8) (Fig. 2).
Furthermore, when a ship sailing in still water has a certain rate of
turn the resistance of the water will not only exert a turning moment
on the ship, but there will also be a certain lateral force that must be
compounded with the centrifugal force. This arises from the flow around
the ship and its direction is mainly towards the centre of the turning
circle.
DRIFT ANGLE ON A STRAIGHT COURSE IN STILL WATER. When a ship
is sailing straight in still water, with no external influences there is
clearly no drift angle. If however there is an external lateral force acting
on the ship, for example the wind, the ship will pick up a lateral velocity
which will increase until the reaction force of the water equals the
external lateral force. Consequently a symmetrically built ship that has
126
 I DRIFT ANGLE IN 'SHIP MANCEUVRES 127
Lift force L

Resistance

4111-

FIG . t. Flow round profile at an angle in relation to drift angle (u =longitudinal,

= lateral velocities, relative to water)

"Y(A)

(A)

FIG. 2. Force components due to drift

Wind

-"`

FIG. 3. Turning moment due to a lateral force,

no forward speed, and lies with the wind abeam, always has a drift angle
of 900. If, however, the ship is not symmetrical, for instance if the whole
superstructure is aft, the wind will exert a moment which will make her
turh, the tale of turn increasing to that at which the reaction moment of
the Water equals the wind moment.
If an external lateral force (wind) is exerted on a moving ship the
water flow around the ship will change as a result of the lateral velocity.
This change in flow also causes a large turning moment on the ship (Fig.
3). Where / is the distance between point of application and centre of
gravity and Y the lateral force, the turning moment (N= /1 x Y) due to
the drift angle will be additional to the moment caused by the wind, if the
128 K. MEURS VOL. 31

Y
(r) (r)-
(c) -t-Y
Path of the
Y(6) centre of gravity

Y()
FIG. 4. Forces on a ship sailing a circular course

superstructure is aft. In order to sail straight (zero rate of turn) a com-

pensatory rudder angle will have to be applied.
4. DRIFT ANGLE OF A SHIP TURNING IN STILL WATER. If lateral forces
other than the wind are exerted on a ship, these forces will also cause
drift velocities. This can be the case if.the rudder, or a thruster, causes a
lateral force, or if a ship sails along a circle. In the latter case there is also a
centrifugal force. Sailing along the arc of a circle, or a series of arcs, may
be intentional or unintentional. One may simply wish to change course,
but the same thing happens unintentionally with careless steering. In both
cases drift angles are generated.
Figure 4 shows the forces exerted on a ship sailing along a circle ; at
any point the centre of gravity moves in the direction of the tangent to
the turning circle and the drift angle is always the angle between the
tangent and the heading. This drift angle is a consequence of the lateral
force of the rudder Y,, the lateral force due to the rate of turn Y,.

and the centrifugal force Y have been initiated by the rudder mo-
ment. In a state of equilibrium (rudder angle, drift velocity and rate of
turn remaining constant) the drift velocity and the rate of turn are
defined by the rudder angle. From the combination of rate of turn and
drift velocity, each point on the ship will describe its own turning circle,
and each point situated further forward or aft will have a different lateral
velocity.
E. THE RUDDER. If the rudder is considered as detached from the ship
it can be conceived as having a profile similar to Fig. 1. The lift force L
is generated because on the upper side of the profile (port when the
rudder is seen from above) the pressure is less than on the lower side.
This pressure difference can be explained by the consideration that water
streaming along the upper side has to travel further than water streaming
along the lower side and must still arrive at the far end simultaneously.
Thus the water streams faster along the upper side than the lower and
causes, according to hydrodynamic theory, less pressure on the upper
side. If however the profile is not infinitely long, as is clearly the case
with a ship's rudder, the streams around the top and bottom of the
rudder will modify the total stream around the profile in such a way that
the resulting force makes an angle with the lift force ; so that besides the
NO. I DRIFT ANGLE IN SHIP MANCEUVRES 129
lift force a resistance force is also induced. If the rudder is not in a free
stream but located just behind a propeller, it will work on a different
principle and can be regarded as a turbine blade that diverts the propeller-
generated stream. Besides these two phenomena which will contribute
to the lateral force working on the rudder (and thus on the ship), yet
another lateral force will be exerted on the ship when the rudder has
been laid at an angle, because of the different-slip stream velocities on
the port and starboard quarters.
The need to consider the rudder as part of a ship-propeller-rudder
system is explained by the following reasoning-: If the rudder is con-
sidered as a profile in an undisturbed stream, then too large a rudder
angle would cause the lateral force on the ship to decrease as the stream
in Fig. i (port side of the rudder) would not continue along the profile
but break away. This condition is known as 'stalling' and occurs when
the angle of attack (rudder angle) is larger than the 'stall angle', which is
generally around s°. However, with the rudder attached to the ship
the rudder angle can increase up to 600 before the lateral force on the ship
starts to decrease progressively with an increase of the rudder angle (see
Fig. 5). The lateral force due to a rudder angle, as shown by the upper
curve in Fig. s-, is the total force by which the ship can be steered. Be-
cause this force does not arise exclusively from component forces working
on the rudder (and thus on the ship), the point of impact will not be on
the rudder either, hut a certain small distance forward of it.

Rudder behind a ship

Lateral force
due to a
rudder angle

Rudder by Itself
I

20 40 60
FIG. E. Rudder angle

6. DRIFT ANGLE AS ANGLE OF ATTACK. Looking once more at Fig. I,

in which the ship is schematized as a profile at rest in an homogeneous
flow field (or the moving ship in a fluid at rest), it will be clear that the
resistance induced by the drift angle will be large ; because the draught
of the ship is small in relation to her length, the water not only moves
around the ship but also underneath her.
This increaie in resistance contributes considerably to the speed-loss
of the ship when manceuvring, and is so much 'larger than the resistance
caused by the rudder angle alone that the latter is almost negligible.
130 K. MELIRS VOL. 31
Therefore, moving the rudder -back and forth quickly without allowing
her to build up a drift angle, and a consequent induced resistance, is no
effective way to get the speed off a ship. Only when the rudder angle is
maintained for some time will she get a drift angle which will reduce her
speed. -

These phenomena change drastically when a ship sails in shallow water.

In the .extreme case of 'a ship sailing on the bottom (keel clearance zero)
no water will pass underneath her but only around her. The lift force L
is then maximal and will even create a longitudinal force in the direction
of the ship's .heading; the induced drag, D, will be negligible as shown in
Fig. .6.
sss,
Deep water

N.
\ N.
%
3 -:
h
1' T.
7.-5 '

no., 6. Drag in shallow water (h depth, I = draught)

If the ship in Fig. 4 is making a turn, points that are further aft will
have a greater lateral velocity than the centre of gravity, while points
forward of the centre of gravity will have a smaller lateral velocity. At
point B in Fig. 4 the lateral velocity is zero and the heading will be the
tangent of the turning circle of this point; forward of the turning point
the lateral velocity is reversed. The location of the turning point moves
further forward as the drift velocity increases. At the start of a turn,
just after the rudder has been laid, the turning point lies about a quarter
of the ship's length aft of the forward perpendicular. As the turn pro-
gresses the turning point moves forward until a condition of equilibrium
has been reached.; in a tanker it then lies about a sixth of the ship's length
aft of the forward perpendicular.
, From the reasoning in the previous section it will be clear that any ship
turning in a circle takes advantage of the drift force, which causes an
extra turning moment to reinforce the moment generated by the rudder
itself. Of course this is only possible because the rudder is attached to
the stern. The magnitude of the drift angle depends on the form of the
ship; a short ship with little draught-will-have a larger drift angle than a
long and deep drawing ship on the same turning circle. From Fig. 6. it
may be concluded that the same lateral force on the ship will cause a
NO. I DRIFT ANGLE IN SHIP MANCEUVRES 131
smaller drift angle in shallow water than in deep water. For the same
rudder angle a ship in shallow water will experience a smaller decrease of
speed than in deep water because of the smaller drift angle, and also
because of the smaller induced drag for a given drift angle.
DRIFT ANGLE AND COURSE CORRECTION ANGLE. In the preceding
sections we have discussed drift angles caused by intentionally or unin-
tentionally sailing along arcs of circles and drift angles caused by winds
more or less abeam. But what drift angle will a ship have when sailing in a
current more or less abeam? The answer is that there is no drift angle at
all if she sails straight in an unchanging homogeneous current in deep
water. If, for instance, one wishes to sail from A to B at 7-g knots with a
2 knot current abeam one has only to find the course correction angle
by drawing a vector diagram. This course correction angle (also called
course allowance) is to be applied to the desired course to find the re-
quired heading. The course allowance is often (erroneously) called drift
angle, probably because the effects of wind and current have much in
common. The presence or absence of a course correction angle depends
only on the way the water, with the ship and all ships in the vicinity,
moves in relation to the bottom.
If however the velocity of the current changes, a drift angle appears
because initially, due to her inertia, the ship tends to make good exactly
the same course over the ground as before. The drift angle caused by this
imbalance will result in a lift force that makes the ship follow a new
course over the ground. As soon as the ship makes good this new course
the drift angle (and consequently the lift force) disappears. Changes in
speed, as well as changes in current velocity occur when navigating in and
out of harbour entrances. Both changes, because they involve the inertia
of the ship, will influence her course over the ground, or track, only
after some time. In large tankers this delay leads to an impression, going
out, that the current change or gradient lies farther from the entrance,
and going in closer to the entrance, while in reality there is an equal
gradient in exactly the same place.
CROSS-CURRENTS IN SHALLOW WATER. When however a ship
sails in a cross-current in shallow water, she does experience a drift
angle. This phenomenon calls for an explanation. Even if the current
velocity were equal at all depths one would still have to take into account
the resistance on the ship's bottom due to the close proximity of the
sea bed. The lateral force (although small) will result in a drift velocity
in relation to the water.
But current velocity decreases towards the sea bottom because of
friction, and the lower parts of the ship move in an area of steeply
decreasing current velocities. This causes the flow along the upper part
of the hull to come from the upstream side and the flow along the lower
part of the hull to come from downstream. The drift angle due to the
upper part of the hull causes a lateral force Y. The drift angle due to the
lower part of the hull, where the flow is from downstream, causes a
 tM E U R.2 L:'. 3

force-,V; ;the pOint, ofapplication Of'whiCh is fOr hydrodynainic:al

. reaSOris,a,,little:furtherlift-, This causes a-,rnoment to act on the ship that
tendS...-to maki 'her, -turn -dominstream. A small :upstream rudder angle is
- thereforerequired,
The.lift,fcirce:Caused- bpthis-rudder angle. imist:be,:stiffiefent to cOrn--
pensate ,for=the.,difference 'between the niornentsi due,,,, to T and V.. Both -
lateral fOrcegTare'laSiusUal aCCOmpanied:b5cjOdUce&drags which, together
with othe'ragsOciated phenomena;; result in leSS,,Speed hung fnade thati
dcep:water'.: If rybu :sail in a :2 -,-knot .crossTcUrient:and; Ositgirding the
C`i,U;rent '.iiartre. bottom, apply::tlieiii,rsc 'correction for this
tlifient Without- subtraCtiiig:i.litile drift angle, you il1 end up upstream:
In conclusion it he said ;that the,---sea'licc.1 counteracts the set and
alSO-rnaleS 'a ship falt4Off 's
also thekeel clearance, the
gtroriger'theS6'.effectS: When the".ikeePclearance,altctnately increases- and
'der.Creaiescai',it '46e.s7=in.sinile'Pdizts of the/Ii.ii-C-bafine-lAtic to submerge
---(hities; the ship may,: t4#,t(5 yaw. Anyrcidder,..:actiOn "Meant to "(Oolit'dfadt
-,this, yaw Mac',be late in taking effect ancl-thUs:accentuatejthe yaW..instead;._
of counteracting it:.

, _