Serkan posted up a great summary of some significant work undertaken in the Emerson Cavitation Tunnel on our internal engineering school bulletin:
We have some exciting news to share about an innovative ship steering system known as a Gate Rudder (GR), invented by Prof Noriyuki Sasaki, a visiting professor at Newcastle University. Apart from functioning as an innovative steering system, the GR is an energy saving device that reduces fuel consumption as well as noise and vibration. A team of researchers in the marine group have developed and tested this unconventional rudder since 2015 in the Emerson Cavitation Tunnel. Furthermore, a dedicated manoeuvring software has been written and employed during the development process.
The Gate Rudder system has recently been installed on a vessel in Japan. During manoeuvring and power-speed trials, the vessel showed impressive performance, with 14% power savings compared with a sister ship equipped with a conventional rudder. We will be involved in full-scale sea trials taking place in March 2018 in Japan.
The video below shows the gate rudder in action