It is very important for both naval architects and ship's officers to know the maneuvering characteristics of their ships. As the abilities of a rudder which controlls a ship can be determined clearly by analyzing the results of Kempf's zig-zag maneuver and directional stability of a ship also known by Dieudonn spiral maneuver, the importance of turning test which takes much time is recently apt to be neglected. But because the test can be executed comparatively more simply than any other maneuvering tests, it gives some informations on the directional stability, and turning characteristics may be expressed simply by the results of the test, it is still often performed. In this paper several assumptions are made to simplify the turning motion of a ship. The equations of initial transient phase, the radius ofsteady turning circle, and the center of the steady turning point are derived by using the hydrodynamic derivatives. And then the approximate method of drawing the turning circle geometrically is suggested.

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