Deformation Measurements at a CFRP-Rudderblade and -stock

Rudders of ships with special functions, such as naval vessels, follow an increasing tendency to be produced by carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP). State of the art and technique is that blades of large rudders are manufactured by CFRP, whereas the stocks, which are particularly high stressed, are made of steel. With the ambition to save more weight and for the optimisation of, for instance, signatures, the objective is to use CFRP for the stocks as well. In this situation, special attention is to be paid to the bearing surface as well as the transfer of the torsional moment of the rudder engine.

During the development of this project, prototypical deformation measurements were performed at a test item which performed like a full scale rudder. The stock was designed in a combination of CFRP and steel.