ANCHOR HANDLING TUG OPERATIONSANCHOR HANDLING TUG OPERATIONS A practical guide to the operation of modern anchor handling tugs engaged in anchor handling and towing operations I.C. Clark and M. Hancox The ABR Company Limitedtents Scope and purpose of the book vi Abbreviations used in the text vii Seeter 1 AHTS power, thrusters, propulsion and steering 9 ‘pepter2 The environmental forces acting on an AHTS vessel 23 pepter2 Controlling an AHTS vessel's thrusters and rudders 59 popter 4 The effect of a tow on AHTS vessel stability 89 Cheeter5 Case studies 123 Appendix to Part 1 - Possible improvements to AHTS vessel safety 159 OT ‘Seper1 Introduction 163 ‘Seeer2 Basic operational cautions - summary from Part1 166 ‘Deeter3 Summary of the key points of Part 2 167 ‘Geeter 4 The behaviour of AHTS class vessels when going astern 174 ‘hepterS Bollard pull certification 177 ‘Geet Turning and manoeuvring modern anchor handling vessels 178 ‘Seeer7 The AHTS design and towing operations 193 ‘Deeeer8 The dangers of very high loads during deep water anchor handling operations 198 ‘Seser2 The dangers of high speed manoeuvring during lay barge operations 202 Deets 10 Some operational characteristics of modern high powered AHTS type vessels 207 ‘Gee 17 Anchor handling loads - basic data required and how to use it 210 Sexe 12 Calculating anchor handling loads 214 ‘See 13 Guidelines on when to start, cease and re-evaluate the safety of an anchor handling operation 226 eee 14 Two boat anchor deployment/recovery operations - management of risk 230 ‘eee 15 ‘Load sharing’ mooring operations - particular risks 234 Chester 16 The responsibilities of personnel in charge of anchor handling and towing operations 240 ‘See 17 Instructions to towmasters and rig movers 242 ‘See 18 Ship knowledge and practical ship handling exercises. 243 ‘Dest 19 Offshore construction operations 247 SSS as Aepend= 1? Rig move meeting proforma 257 Sepentu2 Reference documents 259 Seeentu 3 Tugmaster Training - A view by Captain Terry Phillips 268 Aeperdx4 Further reading 270The aim of this book is to give an insight into the of Anchor Handling Tug Supply vessels when anchor handling and towing operations. It is aimed at the masters and officers who operate these vessels and at towmasters, rig movers, barge masters, tower foremen and shore-based personnel who utilise these vessels in their anchor handling and towing roles. It further endeavours to show, in practical and simple terms, the theoretical knowledge, methods and techniques that can be used to avoid placing these vessels at unnecessary risk when carrying out what, at first sight, appear to be normal operations. ‘Two recent examples of accidents, resulting in the total loss of AHS class vessels and their crews, are used to illustrate what can happen and why it can happen ~ Steyns Power and Bourbon Dolphin. It must always be appreciated that AHS vessels are a design compromise and itis this which may lead to over confidence in the ability of a particular vessel to carry out a given towing or anchor handling function, ‘As the older generation of offshore support vessels is replaced by new tonnage and an older generation of officers and offshore personnel retire, the transfer of experience between generations has not taken place to the extent where all the hard lessons and skills, gained by this older generation, have been fully passed on. ‘The newer generation of vessels are often of impressive power and specification, but there are dangers inherent in these characteristics which may not always be appreciated by those operating and using them, ‘The equipment specification of many modern vessels is such that many officers have little time to fully understand the capabilities and limitations of the vessel they are assigned too. Even after serving for some time, there may be gaps in their knowledge which this book hopes to fill and also enable these officers to look more deeply into the equipment they may be using every day. The reaction by the offshore industry to the loss of AHTS Bourbon Dolphin has been inconsistent, with new rules and procedures recommended by some parties and, administrations, but resisted or only partly acted upon by others. ‘There is also an attitude to these accidents which treats them as ‘unique’ events and therefore they do not hold any particular lessons for the offshore fleet and its personnel. ‘We do not agree with such an attitude, Note 1 It is assumed that readers have sufficient knowledge of ship stability to understand the terminology and basic principles of the subject. Note 2 It is assumed that readers have a working knowledge of the methodologies of anchor handling and towing and are familiar with equipment and vessel type concerned. ‘Note 3 This book does not deal with the cargo carying or supply function of vessels classed Anchor Handling Tug Supply vessels. Refer to the Appendix for publications dealing with this aspect of their work, LC Clark and M.HancoxASF Anchor Handling Tug A vessel designed for towing zed anchor handling work only, specifically in the offshore oilfield. ABTS Anchor Handling Tug Supply Vessel A vessel Sesigned to support operations in the offshore eiiield, able to perform towing, anchor handling, scariage of deck cargo and under-deck bulk liquid and powered cargoes. Additional capabilities may include See fighting, rescue and the capability to support ROV ‘er other specialist operations. In general, very much lmger than a pure AHT. ‘Aechor pennant The primary pennant wire connected to se anchor, usually supplied by the vessel to which the anchor belongs. Sexe A shorthand term covering both semi-submersible and displacement vessels such as drilling rigs, onstruction vessels, pipelaying and other specialist ‘olifield units which rely for their positioning and ‘cation keeping on spread mooring systems, SSeS Barge Management System. An electronic position- Seg stem for deploying and recovering mooring lines Usually based on satellite derived positioning data and ranged so that the master station is on the barge/rig ‘with slave stations on the anchor handling vessels. SP Sollard pull, the power output of the main propuls fon system of an AHT/AHTS. Beat A shorthand term used to describe an AHT/AHTS ype vessel DP Dynamic positioning, An electronic control system Sor positioning and manoeuvring the vessel Driver (boat) A shorthand term describing the person actually manoeuvring the AHT, ‘Gypsy (wildcat) The device used to deploy and recover chain on a winch. Usually a cast steel wheel nominally sized to grip the links of chain as it passes over it. In most installations on AHT/AH'IS class boats, the ‘expsies are connected directly to the shaft of the work ‘Geum of a multi-drum winch and thus, when using the chain handling gypsy, the work drum cannot be used for handling the work wire. Guide pin(s) The retractable steel posts located at the stem of an AHT/AHTS to guide and control the movement of wires and chains passing over the stern. Joystick control A method of manoeuvring a vessel using 2 single lever to operate the main propellers, side thrusters and rudders. Manual control mode In the contest of this book the term refers to manoeuvring the vessel by means of physically operating the levers or other manual controls for propulsion and steering systems breviations used in the text MOU/MODU Mobile offshore unit/Mobile offshore drilling unit, A specialised floating vessel designed for ‘operations in the offshore oilfields. The functions of such vessels include drilling, production, pipe-laying, heavy lift or construction, NWEA North West European Area Operations guidelines ‘The offshore oil industry code of marine operations. Applicable to the sea areas covering all the North Sea, Eastern Atlantic and Norwegian Sea. Within this area, marine operations in the offshore oilfields are subject to an agreed set of guidelines which cover supply, anchor handling, rig moving etc. Their purpose is to set uniform minimum standards and practice which should apply throughout the areas covered. The guidelines do not prevent coastal states or other entities requiring more stringent rules within their laimed ‘zone of economic interest. Pulling anchors The operation of recovering the anchors of a vessel rig/barge), Offshore Installation Manager A term used to describe the individual in overall charge of the safety, health and welfare of a vessel which is not a ship, for ‘example a MOL/MODU or other specialised oilfield craft. He has the same level of responsibility as a conventional ship's master with the additional duty to oversee the safety, health and welfare of the vessels and crews of all the craft assisting the operations of his vessel Rig A shorthand term describing a mobile offshore drilling vessel, either semi-submersible or full dis- placement type. Usually relying on a spread mooring system for positioning and station keeping. Running anchors The operation of deploying the anchor system of a vessel (MOU/MODU). Run line The pre-planned bearing and distance for a mooring line of a spread mooring system. Shark jaw The mechanical (hydraulic) stopper system for the control of wires or chains on the stern of the anchor handling vessel. ‘Tower foreman (anchor foreman) ‘The individual, particularly on a pipelaying barge or construction barge, who is responsible for directing the anchor handling operations, ‘Towmaster The individual with overall responsibility for conducting the anchor handling and towing ‘operations of a drilling rig, Towmastets may also be encountered on complex multi-tug towing/position- ing/mooring operations offshore. In_pipelaying operations the tower foreman will also direct the towing operations of the barge. In some offshore[HUME Abbreviations used in the text oilfields the drilling rig/construction barge engineer or barge master may also take on the role of towmaster. Work winch A term used to describe one of the winch Load cell \¢—— > 100m ———> The towline should be clear of the quay The test should be carried out clear of any navigational hazard or underwater obstacle within a radius of 300 metres from the tug. A tow line length of less than 300 metres can be accepted, provided that it is at least twice the vessel's waterline length, though this should be noted as it may adversely affect the test results. A minimum water depth of less than 20 metres can be accepted, provided that it is at least twice the vessel's draft, though this should be noted as it may adversely affect the test results Wind and current conditions during the test The sea should be calm with no swell waves, the wind from any direction should be less than 10 knots from any direction and the current should be less than 1 knot from any direction Test equipment Al fittings and connections used for the test should have safe working loads that are at least 10% greater than the vessel's designed maximum static bollard pull. The load cell should be accurate to Within + 2% for the ambient temperature of the test and have a valid calibration certificate not more than six months old at the time of the test: Communications ‘There must be adequate communications between the vessel and the load cell measuring station. The vessel The vessel should be using its normal fuel and propellers and loaded at a draft and trim as near as possible to its normal operating condition. The test should be conducted with the power source running at 100% of its maker's recommended maximum sustained power rating, whilst all auxiliary equipment that is normally run from the main power source should be in use during the test. The measurements ‘An autographic instrument that continuously records the tow line tension should be fitted to the load cell, but if this is not available, then the load cell measurements should be manually recorded at intervals not exceeding 30 seconds. Bollard pull definitions Sustained bollard pull - This is the mean measurements taken over the 10 minute trial. Maximum bollard pull - This is the mean highest of the highest measurements taken over a 30 second period within the 10 minute trail.AHTS vessel specification data often only quotes the ballard pull measured with the towline leading directly astern and with no load on the vessel's shaft generators, s0 all the main engine power is used to produce ahead thrust. Furthermore, the maximum power the main Giesel engines can produce is limited by their exhaust temperatures, which in turn, is determined by how effective the sea water cooling is. Consequently, the maximum bollard pull measured in a cold climate will be greater by up to about 10% than if the trial took place under tropical conditions. Rig move plans include the calculated tensions on the rig's mooring catenary for various critical stages of deploying the anchors and moorings, in which they refer to the horizontal component of the catenary’s tension as the required bollard pull. This is misleading, especially in deepwater operations when a tug may be working close to its limits, as the planners’ bollard pull is only the same as that in the vessel's specifications when the operating conditions are similar to those of the bollard pull trials and the tow is leading dead astern with rudders amidships and there is no electrical load ‘on the shaft generators. Diesel engines are the ultimate source of all the power used on AHTS vessels but, as they are built to a very compact design in which space is at a premium, the ‘maximum engine power is not enough to run all the thrusters at full power whilst simultaneously delivering, the maximum bollard pull and supplying all the electric loads (such as ancillary pumps, cold storage refrigeration, sewage system, air conditioning, heating lighting, engine room and bridge monitoring equipment and the communication equipment) that are essential for the tug to function. Operations also often use the ‘winches, deck crane, ballast pumps and cargo pumps, all of which place heavy additional demands on the electrical supply. Power management is a control system. designed to utilise the vessel's generating capacity to the best effect for any particular situation by allocating electrical power loads to the generators in a way that most suits the situation’s requirements. AHTS vessel power management systems typically allow at least two options on how the electrical loads are allocated to the ship's generators 1. Protect maximum bollard pull ~ Maximum bollard pull can only be ensured by putting no load on the shaft generators completely, so all electric power is supplied by the auxiliary generators when the maximum thrust is demanded from the main propellers. 2. Protect maximum electric power ~ ‘The maximum thrust of the main propellers is restricted by one of the ways shown on page 60 to allow the shaft generators to satisfy whatever electric power is demanded from them up to their full capacity. As the generator load. increases, so the maximum pitch available to the main propellers is reduced, which limits the maximum available bollard pull to as ttle as ‘about 65% of full value when the shaft generators are under maximum load. ‘The power management option can only be selected with the engines under low loads, as each option configures the electrical loads and the generators differently, but it would be normal for the auxiliary generators to supply base loads such as hotel services, pumps, steering gear, machinery and bridge monitoring systems etc, when the tug is manoeuvring, An example of a system is shown on pages 151-2. Power management systems can be flexible and complex, but there is a limit to the power available, so the system is designed to prevent demands exceeding this. Protecting maximum bollard pull reduces. the power available to the bow thrusters, which may mean losing control of the tug's heading and so causing it to drift off track when towing a heavy load in marginal conditions. Some tugs are all diesel electric with the main propulsion driven by electric motors as well as the auxiliary thrusters. ‘These power management systems normally nominate a standby generator to auto- ‘matically start when the demand exceeds the capacity of the generators on line and to shut down when the demand falls back. However, this can be unsuitable for a highly variable demand, such as can be caused by thruster use, as the standby generator may not be able to keep up with the rapid sequence of starts and stops. Ship's bridge officers must understand the system on their own tug and know the limits of the power available to any particular situation that the tug is operating in.Chapter 1 - AHTS power, thrusters, propulsion and steering (5000) ‘Tunnel thrusters consist of an impeller pumping a jet of water from one side of the hull to the other but. if the ‘waters ejected into water flowing along the hull, then the jet partially attaches itself to the water flow and so some Jateral thrust is lost. This is known as the ‘Coanda effect” and it increases with the ship's speed through the water, so the thnuster's effective power diminishes as the vessel moves faster ahead (or astern), or is holding its position against an increasing current on the bow. At speeds up to about one knot, the loss of effective maximum thrust is negligible, but at 3 knots nearly half the thrust can be lost. (Tunnel thrusters behave in the opposite way to rudders, which are relatively ineffective at low water flow rates but improve as water flow speeds up.) Vessel stopped ‘ep Jetdiameter ‘ The thruster jet is ejected into still water along the ship’s side so there is full thrust. The loss of lateral thrust with increasing vessel speed through the water depends on the lateral speed of the water in the thruster's jet, relative to the speed of the water flowing along the hull Jet thrust = jet pressure x impeller disk area So, impeller jet thrust ‘Tj 2 (w) Vi = kN zi Hence, the jet speed ‘Vj’ = 5 m/s p(w) = thruster diameter (m) & ‘p(w)' = 1.025 t/nr? So, ifa thruster 1.44 m in diameter delivers 8t of thrust when a ship is stopped in the water, then Thrust in kiloNewtons = 8 x 9.01 = 78.5 kN ayy. 2. | 85. So, jet speed ‘Vi’ = 74g \| nt.o25 = 6:86 m/s The Coanda effect on a tunnel thruster of the ship moving ahead Estimating the loss of thrust due to the Coanda effect The Coanda effect is influenced by the shape of the hull, particularly downstream of the the thruster, so it is a complex phenomenon. However, research carried out by Chislett & Bjorheden in 1966 yielded the following approximate graph for estimating the loss of thrust. So, jet speed in knots = 1.945 Vj =|13.3 knots So, if the ship's speed through the water is 3 knots, then the thruster loses about 40% of thrust. Vessel moving ahead It Ship's speed ‘Ws’ The jet attaches to the flow along the hull so thrust decreases with increasing ship's speed. 20% 60% 40% Percentage loss of thrust 100% 80% 0 04 os 12 16 Ship's speed / thrust jet speedSe — (REY Pare 1 - THEORY . ‘Auniliary thrusters and the Coanda effect (continued) The provision of auxiliary thrusters shown on pages 10 and 12, whilst common, is not universal and many AHTS vessels are built with stem tunnel thrusters and retractable azimuth bow thrusters. The loss of thrust caused by the Coanda effect depends on the thrusters location along the hull when the vessel is holding position or even moving slowly against a heavy tow by using a high level of ahead thrust. The water drawn into the main propellers flows considerably faster past the stern than at the bow, so the thrusters at the bow are less affected by the Coanda effect than a thruster mounted at the stern just forward of the main propellers. “The stern thrusters are not far enough below the hull to be totally clear of the water flowing into the main propellers and so they are only really effective in situations that do not demand a high ahead or astemn thrust. However, a few AHTS vessels are built with azimuth thrusters at the stem as the main propulsion system, instead of the usual twin screw, wvin rudder arrangement shown below, and these can be effective at high levels of thrust, Y The Coanda effect and thruster location when holding station against a heavy tow ‘thrust TIN Stern thrusters Tunnel stern thrusters are often mounted in a box-shaped skeg that projects below the keel so the thrusters are sited beneath the centre of the flow of water into the main propellers. If the vessel is stopped in the water but thrusting ahead against a heavy load on the tow line, then most of the water passing through the propellers is circulated around the aft part of the hull and so the bow thrusters are not greatly affected by the Coanda effect. Retractable azimuth bow thrusters The azimuth thruster swings down well below the main flow of water along the hull when the vessel is moving ahead through the water. Stern thrusters installed in a box-shaped skeg The thrust from the azimuth bow thruster is usually included in the maximum bollard pull| Chapter 1 - AHTS power, thrusters, propulsion and steering U7 A ship's rudder is foil-shaped to produce a lateral force from an air stream, so the lateral force on the rudder is = Ahead thrust RH. screw LH. screw astern thrust ahead thrust The rudders are split and turned inboard, whilst the screw on the inside of the turn is put full astern and the outboard propeller is set at the same power ahead astern. The turning moment created by the distance ‘y’ between the two propellers acts to move the stern to starboard and so assists the relatively poor starboard component of the starboard propeller's ahead thrust. The propellers are inward turning for the transverse thrust created by the inside screw going astern to assist the turn. 2- An AHTS vessel turning to port with Kort nozzle cp propellers and high lift rudders Rudders are split: the port rudder is turned outboard whilst the starboard rudder remains amidships ¢ > = Ahead thrust Ce < = Astern thrust + LH.screw RH. screw = Port bow thrust ahead thrust astern thrust The high lift rudders are split, but only the rudder on the inside of the turn is turned outboard with its propeller thrusting ahead to avoid directing the propeller wash at full power across the ship’s stern where it can interfere with the other propeller and rudder. The other rudder is left amidships with its propeller thrusting astern to counter the small ahead component of the inside screw’s thrust. The turning moment due to the separation ‘y’ between the screws now acts against the stern moving to starboard, but its effect is small due to low ahead and astern components of the propellers’ thrust. The ship may be built with outward turning propellers to take advantage of any transverse thrust, created by the outside screw going astern, but this effect is much reduced by the Kort nozzles.Chapter 1 - AHTS power, thrusters, propulsion and steering EAN High life rudders compared to conventional rudders (continued) The bottom diagram on the previous page shows one drawback of lap rudders on twin screw tugs, as the near 90° deflection of the screw wash cannot be used to advantage when a flap rudder is tured inboard. It may be that large conventional spade rudders perform as well or even better in the turning short round manoeuvre, though a flap rudder can generate almost completely lateral thrust without producing significant ahead thrust, which can be an advantage when moving, the vessel sideways. The ‘turning short round’ manoeuvre is possible to carry out without the use of the bow thrusters, albeit more slowly, and the procedure in the top diagram is taught as a method of tuming a twin screw ship with a single centreline rudder (though you really do need very calm conditions and a lot a patience to achieve this on such a ship, particularly if the ship's beam is relatively small compared to its Iength). High lift rudders can only direct about 50% of a main propeller’s full thrust when the rudders are hard ‘over and diverting the thrust through nearly 90°. They also create a fast rate of yaw at relatively small rudder angles, which can make manually steering a vessel fitted with them difficult when it is moving at speed. Steering a ship around a way point onto a new course requites the vessel to follow a curved path, whilst the rate of yaw must match the rate at which the ship bodily moves along the curve of the altered course and. a very sensitive helm can easily cause an inexperienced helmsman to over steer, which can lead to the ship swinging increasingly erratically about the required heading, Of course, nearly all ships are steered by auto pilot most of the time and a ship's steering characteristics are determined by other factors as well, such as the hull’s underwater shape and its fore and aft trim, but conventional rudders are likely to keep a steady course with less helm actions than high lift ones. Excessive rudder movements increase a ship's, fuel consumption and so high lift rudders are not normally fitted to cargo carrying vessels that spend most of their time making long ocean passages at full speed. A few AHTS vessels, such as the Bourbon Liberty 200 class of tug, are built with the main propulsion provided by three ‘2’ drive thrusters at the stern and no rudders. The two outboard units are azimuth thrusters that are used to steer the vessels whilst the third thruster is fixed and mounted in the centre of the stern ‘These vessels are all diesel electric. The angle through which the outboard azimuth thrusters can rotate inboard will be restricted so that they cannot direct their propeller wash onto the fixed propeller on the centreline or the skeg. Lees Outboard azimuth thi A triple screw AHTS vessel with azimuth thrusters for steering Fixed centreline thruster steering (port & starboard) ruster for The three stern thrusters provide the main propulsion thrust and are driven by 'Z’ drives connected to electric motors sited internally in the hull, Steering is achieved by rotating the outboard azimuth thrusters whilst the centreline thruster is fixed. The thrusters are tilted to direct the propeller wash slightly upwards and so follow the contour of the hull when thrusting ahead.(BBY Part 1 - THEORY Bait Fig Gal sign IMO Neo, Classifeation DIMENSIONS Length, overal Length Breasts, movie: Depth main deck Maximum drat ids ar Net: capacrties Descweight (rasioury Clear Deck ares Deck Cargo: Fue Potable Water Balt Water! Dri Water Brine/DMA/ Ghycl/Liquid Mud Liquid Mud Buk Ship's Stores: MACHINERY Main Engines: Propulsion: Bow Thruster: Stern Thrusters: Shaft Generator Ausillary Generators GENERAL INFORMATION Labroy shipyard (Batam), Novernber 2007 Singapore 96790 9361641 [ABS “At (© Offshore Support Vessel &e Towing Vessel, "AMS, *ACCU, *DP5-2 68.0 metres, 52.0 metres 160 metres 73 metres 62 metres 2.347 tonnes 648 tomes 2.485 tonnes @ 62m drat 33mx 128 m~ 425 square meres 870 tonnes £827 cubie metres (dedicated) 4,615 cubie metres including the combined use Mud/Srne tanks and the combined use Rig Chain Teeter) 4468 cuble metres ‘911 euble metres 128 cubic metres (in 2 dedicated tanks) 593 cube metres (including the combined use Mus tanks "54. 0f25), 465 cube metres (in 6 dedicated tanks) 503 cube metes(induding the combined use Mud tanks "sof 25) 185 cubic mettes (approximately 6,600 cubic fet) total capacity in 4 tanks Freeser(-25 degrees Celis) - approximately 12 cubic metres; Cooler (4 degrees Celeus) ~ ‘pproximately 12 cube metres; Dry Stores ~ ‘pproximately 26 cube meties 24,405 BHP ~ 8.810 BHP 2 X MAN BEA Alpha CPP Propellers in MAN AT 21 600 KW (805 BHP) Brunoll Tunnel Thusters, sppreniately 9.0 tonnes trust each e600 kw (20S BHP) Sranvol Tunnel Theusters, Spprcximately 9.0 tonnes thrust exch 2 Leroy Somer shah generators, 1300 KW, 1600 leaeaeh, 440 60H 1x Caterpillar 3406 Diesel Generator, 270 KW, 440 veo He AV Class 120-125 bollard pull vessel ‘A good example of a modern, medium sized AHTS class vessel (courtesy Swire Pacific Offshore Ltd) TOWING AND ANCHOR HANDLING Bole Pull Rig Chain Leck: Wine Load Capac Brake Capacity ow Dum Wire Capacity Wir Dram Capacity Chain Gypsy able Liner ‘Spare Reel Capacity Stern Roller: “Taw Pins/Guide Pins: ‘Wire chain Stopper: Pennant Storage Reel DECK MACHINERY Tugger capstan: windase: Bow Mooring ‘Smit Towing Bracket Crane Capacity ELECTRONICS. Main Radar Aviary Radar Auto ioe (Gyro Compass: 120 tonnes (risimur) 395 cubic metres chan capacity 1x Hydrabraft 250 tonne variable pressure \watefal yinch Towing and Anchor handling Drums: Paling Force 7st layer = 238 tonnes, mi layer — 165 tonnes, outer layer ~ 122 tonnes (lw speed) Paling Speed 1st ayer ~ 11.4 m/min, mid layer ~ 17.6rw/min outer ayer ~ 23.8 r/min lw speed) Paling Force: st layer ~ 127 tonnes mi layer = ‘2 tonnes, outer layer ~61 tonnes thigh speed) Paling Speed: Ist ayer ~ 22.8 m/min. id layer ‘35 2rn/min outer layer 47.6 m/min gh speed) ‘Te Anchor Handling Drum and Towing Drum are capable of 250 tonnes pul on Tst ayer multaneoushy Brake Fore: Tat ayer 207 tonnes, cuter Iyer 320 tonnes, mi ayer 1s3 tonnes 1500071 mm diameter 4800: 71 mm dameter Vc 76rom, 1: 844mm mounted on each side of anchor handing érum Tix hydra vanable pressure, 20 tonnes pul on Teter, 1400 mx 71mm diameter Rls Royce, SWL 350 tonnes, 55x20 dhameter 1 pa of tractable Karmoy guide pins with horizontal locking toe 2c retractable Karm forks, SWL 300 tonnes for ‘re chain upto 102 mm Yi Hydra variable pressure, 20 tonnes ballon Tet yer 1000 m x76 mm diameter 2% 10 tonnes Hydraleatt 2.16 anne (warping heas)/10 tonne (wre drum) Hydrakeate Ye tonne Hydrakraft 2100 kg anchors with «dams 36mm chain each side, pls 1 spare anchor 2x mooring srums,eapacty of 200 x 56 rm rope tach 1x.200 tonnes SWILleated on the frecasle TTS, Stonnes at 13 m radius 11 Furuno FAR-2117 X Band ARPA Radar with 21° Lcbalsplay 1x Futuna FAR-2137S $ Band ARPA Radar with 21° LD dsplay “i Tekimes PR 6000 Series 3 x Tokimec TG8000 with repeaters in wheelhouse and steering gear room‘Wind pressure and force “The effect of wind pressure and force on a ship's topside areas ‘SSmating the maximum lateral wind force on an AHTS vessel “Meter resistance ‘Sssmating the maximum lateral current force on an AHTS vessel “Whe steady downwind drift heading of an AHTS vessel Sea waves “Se maximum slope of a wave Sere groups Mere spectra ENSWAP significant wave heights for continental shelf seas Se= waves in shallow water -S=ip's response to waves “Besonant’ or ‘Synchronous’ motion “Sship’s response to beam waves that create resonant heave ‘Sstip's response to beam waves with periods longer than its heave period ‘#-ship’s response to beam waves with periods equal to or longer than ‘roll period “Were forces and a ship’s ability to hold station “Sesugh assessment of the limit of an AHTS vessel's ability to hold to a wack 49 51 53 55 The environmental forces acting on an AHTS vessel ‘Manoewuring an AHTS vessel close toa rig in a esing sea (courtesy Olympic Shipping AS)(RA) Port 1 - THEORY ‘The full pressure of a wind is known as the ‘stagnation so the pressure exerted on an actual plate will be less pressure’, which is the pressure that the wind would exert than the stagnation pressure. The pressure is further on striking an infinite flat plate ‘square on’ ifthe airflow reduced if the wind strikes a plate obliquely at an ‘angle e to be halted completely (i.e. the plate would be of an attack’ to the plate's exposed surface. The force providing a perfect lee). Some pressure must ‘leak’ acting on the plate equals the wind pressure multiplied around the edges of a real plate otherwise the airflow by the plate’s area. ‘would simply accumulate indefinitely against the plate, Wind pressure acting on the flat plate Stagnation pressure = 2 p(w) Vwtm/s)? N/m? Where ‘p(w)’ = density of air in kg/m? & ‘Vum/s)’ = wind speed in m/s A ») ‘The density of air increases with the atmospheric pressure and reduces with (Wina| Vs temperature, but the following value can be used for wind acting on a ship. Ww Air density at 15°C & atmospheric pressure 1013mb = 1.275 kg/m? q However, most obstructions do not completely stop the airflow, as there is a leakage of wind around the edges of even a flat vertical plate, so: Wind pressure exerted on the plate = CDW) Foo Vutmn/s)? N/m? Where the non-dimensional coefficient ‘Cocw)’ is known as the drag factor. 275 1000N = 1KN, so: Wind pressure = Cow) 333 Vwten/s)? = 0 vaten/s)? N/m? Wind pressure can be estimated for the wind speed ‘Vw(kt)' in knots, as 1 knot = 0.514 m/s Wind pressure = coow $223 (0.514 Vuk)? - ooo ker? N/m? Wind pressure estimated in t/m2 as 1 tonne on earth weighs 9.81 kN Wind pressure ~ Se tte) t/m?, where (kt) = wind speed (knots) The drag factor and, hence, the pressure of the wind, varies with the angle of attack ‘ Angle of attack = 90° Angle of attack = a° surface . _ CD0w)90" 4 " = SoMa" Caer Wind pressure = 58300 | Vw kt) t/m’ Wind pressure 58300 Vw(kt)? t/m’ Where ‘Cowa"” = sin a'Coqwy90" The drag factor for a flat plate increases roughly with the sine of the angle of attack ‘a’ The force of the wind on a flat plate The force of the wind on a flat plate wind pressure x exposed area ‘A’ of the plate cow) force ~ 55300 Wind speed Vw(kt) given in knots Wind speed VuAm/s) given in metres/second vue)? tonnes | &| Wind force = A S20 vinim/s)* KN‘Chapter 2 ~ The environmental forces acting on an AHTS vessel 251 We should expect the drag factor for wind striking a large flat surface square on (i.e. with an angle of attack of 90°) to be between 0.9 and 1, but a ship's topside is, a complex three dimensional shape and not a flat plate. The hull acts essentially as a vertical aerofoil, so if the wind strikes its rounded stem at an oblique angle to the fore and aft line, then high pressure at the point of impact is concentrated on the windward side and the flow of air splits asymmetrically to accelerate the greater proportion of the air to flow down the hull’s leeward topsides. There is now a pressure differential across the two sides of the ship in which the drop in pressure acting against the leeward ship's side can be greater than the increased pressure on its windward side at small angles of attack. This creates a lateral force that acts Angle of attack Low pressure distribution a Zero attack angle The effect of the wind on an AHTS vessel’s hull a = = Low pressure aerodynamic force @) @ Attack angle less than stall 1. The airflow is symmetrical and so there is no net lateral force acting on the hull’s topsides. through a point towards the hull’s windward end (i.e. the bow) where airflow velocity down the leeward side is, maximum and the reduction in pressure on the hull’s area above the waterline is consequently the greatest ‘The drag factor for wind on a ship's bow increases rapidly with the angle of attack and will reach a peak value that may exceed 1 with the wind still significantly forward of the beam. The flared high fo'¢sle of an AHTS vessel traps and directs the airflow very effectively and 80 produces a greater athwartships force of winds forward of the beam on the fore part of the hull than ‘would be the case fora flush deck hull. However, the aft half of an ATS vessel's hull topsides is very low with poor streamlining, so a wind off the stem quarter ‘creates quite a small athwartships force = Boundary layer and wake = High pressure aerodynamic force = Plan view of the hull’s topsides Attack angle at stall 2. The airflow is asymmetrical so it creates a lateral force, which increases with increasing attack angle and is centred on the forward region of the hul’s topsides. 3. The airflow breaks down as air leaks round the stern from high pressure on the windward side to the low pressure leeward side. The low pressure centre tends to move further forward as the angle of attack increases from condition 1 to 3. ‘As the angle of attack increases beyond the stall condition, airflow along the leeward side breaks down completely and the lateral force is mainly due to high pressure acting on the windward side of the hull. ‘The centre of pressure consequently moves towards the centre of the exposed area. ‘The housing blocks constructed on top of a ship's hull consist mainly of vertical flat surfaces, so the athwartships wind forces acting on them are closer to the ‘flat plate’ model shown on the previous page than the foil-shaped hull topsides. An AHTS vessel's housing is the large accommodation block on the raised fo'e'sle, so the force of a wind on the tug’s forepart at any angle of attack is considerably greater than the force acting on the low after half of the vessel's exposed topside areas.The effect of the wind on an AHTS vessel with a clear aft deck Large wind ‘Small wind yaw moment yaw moment Wind force = Turbulence Wind about 25° forward of the beam Wind about 25° abaft the beam The wind strikes the bridge front and high The wind striking the side of the housing still {fo'c'sle to create a large moment yawing the produces a moment yawing the bow to leeward bow to leeward. though this is reduced by the wind striking the leeward part of the aft end of the fo'csle and housing. ‘Sketch graphs of the forces on the bow and stern for a wind at any angle off the bow Total lateral wind force = Fvwit + Frwa Bow to leeward yawing moment = L( FYiw)f ~ FY(wa) where ‘ = ship's LBP PUMA, 22405 PUM FRIBIE] YY © Forward lateral wind force 'FYiwif! 0 20° 40° 60° 80° 100° 120° 140° 160° 180° Ahead Wind angle of attack ‘a’ off the bow Astern The effect of wind flowing around a three-dimensional shape, such as the AHTS vessel's topsides, is complex, as wind from abaft the beam creates a bow to windward yawing moment when striking the aft facing bulkheads at the inboard leeward side of the break of the fo'e'sle, even though these are close to amidships (the moment is increased by the ship's relatively large beam to length ratio). The forepart of the hull contains most of the topside area, mast of which is much higher above the water than the aft deck area, so the maximum possible lateral force is about 4 times greater at the bow than at the stern ‘fora given wind speed. Furthermore, the lateral force on the bow peaks when the wind is about 25° forward of the beam.| Chapter 2 ~ The environmental forces acting on an AHTS vessel (270 ‘The limit of an AHTS vessel's capability to hold a heading against a wind forward well off the vessel's bow ‘will be limited by the power of its bow thrusters, which ‘must counter at least 75% of the total wind force acting con the vessel's topsides. Consequently, it is more useful to estimate the forces of the wind on the tug's forward and aft halves separately. Models of various ship types, hhave been tested in wind tunnels and have shown that the higher exposed topsides have a drag factor between 0.8 and 1.0 for winds close to the beam, but the low afi profile of AHTS vessels will have a lower drag factor, as the wind can pass over the deck relatively easi Furthermore, the raised fo'c'sle and superstructure rise much higher above the waterline than the low aft deck and so they are subjected to a higher wind speed, as this increases with height above the sea and the rate at which it increases is greatest close to the sea surface. (Beaufort scale wind speeds relate to a height of 6 metres above sea level whereas the offshore oil field weather forecasts normally give the wind speeds for 10 and 30 metres above sea level.) The forces on the tug’s forward and aft halves in near beam winds can be very roughly estimated for a given wind speed by using a drag factor of 0,7 for the low aft half of the lateral profile and a drag factor of 1.0 for the much higher forward half of the profile. The areas of the lateral profile’s two halves can be approximated by superimposing rectangles over the tug’s profile in the general arrangement plans and making rough estimates to allow for the side areas of railings and masts, as the following diagram shows. DDD) = Forward topside area, ‘A(f)' (Co 1.0) Estimating the maximum lateral force of a given wind speed The ship's lateral topside areas fore & aft of amidships can be estimated by superimposing rectangles onto the profile provided in the general arrangement plans, as shown below. Forward lateral wind force Frit = Aq) Aft lateral wind force Fy(wia ~ Ata) Total lateral wind force Fvww) = Fviwif + FYwia Note that the wind speed ‘Vu(kt)’ in the above two formulae is in knots where 1 knot is equal to 0.514 metres/second. It should also be appreciated that wind speeds can increase by about 20% during gusts, which increases the pressure of the wind and its force by about 50%. (01) = Aft topside area, ‘Ata’ (CD 0.7) 58300 ute) Baao0 Ye? tonnes[ERB] Port 1 = THeEORY i ‘Water resistance is generated by the water flowing past the hull due to the vector sum of the vessel's movement and any prevailing current. Water flowing around a ship’s hull produces a force in the same way as the ‘wind, except that itis about 800 times more dense than air so its force is much greater than that of the wind for the same flow rate. The hull is shaped to move easily through water, so the flow has a much lower drag factor than wind around the topside area when the ship is ‘moving ahead and, to a lesser extent, astern. However, the drag factor increases considerably for sideways movement, as the immersed lateral area obstructs the flow in a way similar to a flat plate, particularly in the hull's midships region. There is also the frictional drag t the hull’s bottom, as water flows beneath the ship as well as around it and this is considerable for anchor handling tugs because of their high beam to length ratio, so the drag factor for a beam current is, about 0.9. Waterflow beneath a ship is further restricted by shallow water (i.e. in water depths of less than about six ties the ship's draft), so hui resistance increases by a factor of about 1.7 in a water depth of three times draft and a factor of about 2.5 in a water depth of 1.5 times draft The force of a current acting on a hull ‘The pressure of a current on the hull = Co(c) Fre Vetm/s)® KN/m? Where ‘CO(O)’ = the drag factor, ‘pc’ = water density (1.025 t/m3) & ‘Verm/s)’ = the current in m/s So, the force of a current on the hull = Lxd S22 Veim/s? kN Where L’ = The ship's length between perpendiculars, LBP, (m) & ‘a’ = The ship's draft (mm) Or, the force of a current on the hull = Lxd 5% 7.025 (0,514)? Veit? tonnes So, the force of a current on the hull = Lxd S22 veo? tonnes Where ‘Vatkt)’= the current in knots The approximate shallow effect of on a hull’s drag factor in a current 6 5 ‘es 4 2 1 Shallow water Co(c)/deep water Co(c) 3 0 water depth / draft Still water conditionChapter 2 - The environmental forces acting on an AHTS vessel (250) ‘The force of water against the hull varies with a current’s angle of attack to the bow of an AHTS vessel in a similar way to the wind (see page 25), except that the immersed hhull’s area is almost symmetrical between its fore & aft ends, so the lateral force of a beam current. splits roughly equally between the forward and the aft halves, of the hull, The currents total lateral force is close to maximum from about 25° forward of the beam to about 25° abaft of the beam with the maximum force ‘on the bow at about 25° forward of the beam. ‘Tank tests on model hulls give an overall drag factor of about 0.6 within this range of angles of attack, but the maximum drag factor on the forward and aft halves increases to about 0.8 for currents at about 25° forward fof the beam to about 25° abaft of the beam, respectively. Estimating the maximum lateral force of a current close to the beam ‘The hull profile below the summer waterline fae imme eg The total lateral force of the water against the hull for a current on the beam can be estimated by applying the formula derived on the previous page and allowing an overall drag factor of 0.6. Lateral current force on the hull in a current on the beam = Lxd © vetta? Note that the current ‘Ve(kt)’ is in knots where 1 knot is equal to 0.514 metres/second. The lateral force is split roughly equally between the hull’s forward and aft halves for currents on the beam, but the maximum force on the bow occurs for the current at about 65° off the bow when a drag factor of about 0.8 is more appropriate to the forward half of the hull, so: a tonnes The maximum lateral force on the bow ~ rr 2 * 4725 Vee tonnes Total lateral current force = Bow downstream yawing moment = Bow yawing DOE cownstream gee a | Sketch graphs of the forces on the bow and stern for a current at any angle off the bow ‘Stern yawin; ae FYof + FY(a L(FY(@f - FY(c)a) where ship’s LBP 0 Forward lateral current force ‘FYici’ 0 20° 40° Current angle of attack ‘a’ off the bow 60° 80° (2044, 2240) UDINE JeIaIE] YY 100° 120° 140° 160° 180°Wind never acts solely on a free floating ship because the ship's downwind drift produces a current in the opposite direction to the drift. The force of the water opposing the motion acts through the centre of the hull’ resistance, which shifts as the ship yaws in a way. that mirrors the position of the topsides’ centre of resistance to the wind (see page 25). The ship drifts at a steady rate and heading when both the forces and the yawing moments created by the wind and water resistance are equal and opposite, The following diagrams illustrate the sum of the wind and water resistance forces acting on an AHTS vessel with no deck cargo when itis free to drift with the wind. 0 Forward lateral wind force ‘Fy(wif’ 40° 60° 80° “Fret 0 Forward lateral net force ‘Frow+c’ The freely drifting wind angle for an AHTS vessel with an aft deck clear of cargo The wind and water resistance lateral forces acting on the bow and stern Wind angle of attack ‘a’ off the bow. Hull resistance acts as a current flowing in the opposite direction to the wind The net lateral forces acting on the bow and stern leeward fecwera ll = id angle of attack ‘a’ off the bow _Rm)Ag, 92405 PUL TeIDIEL BY 100° 120° 140° — 160° 180° vChapter 2 - The environmental forces acting on an AHTS vessel (30) The steady downwind drift heading of an AHTS vessel (continued) Soth the net force and yawing moment are zero when lateral thrust at the stern. The stern must also produce she vessel is drifting downwind at a steady rate and on sufficient astern thrust to counter the wind force's 2 constant heading, However, the wind’s lateral force ahead component. alone on the bow is about twice that on the stern, so if "The further abaft the beam that the wind is put, the the vessel is to be held stationary on the headingby the less is the load on the bow thrusters when the vessel is thrusters, then the bow thrust must be about twice the to be held ona steady heading in seas close to the beam. The AHTS vessel drifting freely downwind with an aft deck clear of cargo Hull resistance The vessel is drifting downwind ona stable heading A(}> = The direction of drift © = Effective centre of water pressure @ = Effective centre of wind pressure The water resistance is only created by the vessel drifting at a steady speed to leeward. The vessel held stationary in the water on the drift heading by thrusters The bow thrust to windward needed to hold the tug on a steady heading is considerably reduced in near beam seas if the wind is abaft the beam, but it must still be about twice the stern thrust to windward for keeping the steady drift heading.(WNBA) Port 1 - THEORY The turbulence due to the wind blowing across the downwards into deeper water in a progressively water's surface causes a transfer of energy from the air diminishing way. The sea waves created by this process to the sea that sets the water particles on the surface approximate to ‘trochoidal waves’, as shown in the into a rotational motion. This energy is transferred following diagram Wind generated sea waves Initial wave formation Wave increases with time and travel distance LPR LOH Suge! Sef Z uh » Cy eit Friction between the airflow and the sea's 2S Stoke's arite surface creates turbulence in both fluids. % — The continual energy transfer from the wind Eddies persist on the le side of the wave crests to the water particles increases their speed causing pressure fluctuations in the air flow that and radius of rotation. contribute to the build up of the waves. Water particles move slightly faster in the crests than in the troughs, causing a downwind shift of the orbital centres, known as ‘Stoke's drift’, so energy moves downwind and consequently the build up of a wave is reinforced by the waves upwind of it. The water particles’ near circular motion create a wave with long troughs and steeper shorter crests that approximates to a ‘trochoidal’ wave profile The approximate deep water wave profile & water motion = Wavecrest Trough Wavecrest Orbital radius decreases I | exponentially with depth 1 i Wavelength ‘x, |~—————»1 The energy transferred downwards from the water particles at the surface diminishes with depth so the radii of the water particles rotations reduce exponentially with increasing depth. Direction of wave travel, (or propagation) —> The depth of water is greater than 40% of the wavelength The vertical scale is greatly exaggerated, relative to the horizontal scale, for the sake of clarity. ‘The wave period ‘Tw’ is the interval between the passing of one crest and the next. Wavelength ‘0’ Wave period Tw’ A wave continues growing in height, length and period with both the duration of the wind and the distance over which it has been blowing in the same direction and with the same strength, which is known as ‘fetch’. However, eventually the energy in the sea’s surface matches the energy in the air flowing over it and the wave ceases to grow any further. The speed or ‘celerity’ ‘C’ of an individual wave = metres/secondChapter 2 - The environmental forces acting on an AHTS vessel (330) ‘Sea waves (continued) ‘The speed of an individual wave can also be related to its wavelength and period as shown below. The speed of an individual deep water wave (by the superimposed flow method) ‘A smooth water flow is super~ imposed onto the wave motion Wave celerity ‘C: ————> <—\@®__ Flow velocity ‘-c” The ‘frozen’ wave profile that results from the above superimposition Particle motion at the surface is transformed from a circular motion to that of a roller coaster Energy/kilogram at the trough = Energy/kilogram at the crest 4C+U) _ -(C- Ue $0 (C+UP C-UF , gy joutes Where ‘g’ is 9.81 m/s?, the acceleration on earth due to gravity So (C+ UP + (C-U) = 2gh joules Then -4CU = 2gh joules 2cU So Wave height 'h’ = metres ....(1) But the wave height ‘h’ also equals the diameter of the wave particles' orbital motion and the particle completes one orbit in wave period ‘T’ So the length of orbit = nh metres & particle velocity = u m/s Hence Wave height at metres ....(2) Combining equations ‘1' and Wave period seconds So Wave celerity ‘c= 2 metres/second 2n Where ‘is the wave period in seconds & ‘g’ = 9.81 m/s? Wavelength ‘A’ Ms s/s But also Wave's celerity, Wave period Tw metres/second it - [Ps And so Wave celerity, ‘C’ also = \/>y, metres / second Where ‘2! is the wave length in metres & ‘g’ = 9.81 m/s(BAY Pan 1 - THEORY ‘Sea waves (continued) The relationship between wave height and the wave heights are not constant. Nevertheless, the average wavelength is complex, as waves of differing lengths length of a deep water wave for a given height can be continually interact with each other and so observed estimated as follows. The relationship between wave's length and its average height Wave height (metres) == Height = 0.05x {length -al deep water wave profile 7.45m t~ Height = 0.05 x length 0 149m Wavelength (metres) Deep water wave equations 1.56 i m/s, & ‘2’ = 1.56T?m Wavelength in metres, & “2 = 1.56 Phase velocity ‘C’ = 1.56Tms, or “ Where ‘T’ = The wave period in seconds, ‘2. Pressure under still water increases linearly with depth as given by the following equation: Pressure under still water = water density x gravitational acceleration ‘g’ x water depth Pressure in still water is due to randomly moving water motion over the molecules’ random movements and so. molecules colliding with any submerged object, so the create a pressure bias in the direction of water pressure at any particular depth acts equally in all molecules’ motion that, at any one location, is directions, However, sea waves superimpose an orbital continually changing with the wave cycle. The rate of increase in water pressure with depth of water beneath a wave Direction of wave travel, (or propagation) —=> The vertical scale is greatly exaggerated, relative to the horizontal scale, for the sake of clarity The rate at which pressure increases with depth reduces beneath wave crests, but it increases under the troughs. The influence of the waves decreases exponentially with the water depth and effectively disappears at depths greater than about 40% of the wave's length. Note that the lines of equal water pressure are not horizontal but follow the wave profile to an extent that diminishes with depth.Chapter 2 - The environmental forces acting on an AHTS vessel [35000 The maximum slope of a wave can be estimated by will underestimate the actual maximum slope of real approximating its profile to a sine curve, though this, waves, particularly large breaking waves. Estimating the maximum slope of a wave A plot of the variation in the height of an arm rotating at a constant angular speed, such as the bicycle pedal shown below, will be that of a sine curve. a ” ae 21 ns/second, so the time period ‘T’ of one cycle, is given by T = 4" seconds The plot of the elevation of the water level in a wave against both time and the distance it travels is assumed to be a sine curve with a constant angular rate of progression ‘a’ radians/second. ‘h’ = wave height (metres), ‘X’ = wavelength (metres), ‘Tw’ = wave period (seconds) ——— = Water elevation ‘Z’ (metres), ——— = Wave slope ‘S' (radians) elevation ‘2" Wave slope ‘S’ o 05d » 15h istance travelled ‘x’ (metres) 0 OsTw ™w 1.5Tw ‘Time ‘t’ (seconds) 7 oO 0 2n 2n ‘Stage in the wave's angular cycle (radians) The elevation ‘ of the water level at distance ‘x’ from the origin = s sin (kx) metres Where kis known as the wave number and is given by k = 2 cycles/metre The wave slope SO kc0s (lo) radians The wave slope is maximum when ‘kx’ = 0, m, 2n, 3m etc. where the cosine of ‘kx’ = 1 So the maximum wave slope ‘Smax’ radians From the equations on page 33 a= metres So The maximum wave slope ‘Smax’ radians[BBY Port = THEORY ‘A wave with a single wavelength cannot exist on its own because any disturbance that creates waves will generate a range of different wavelengths and periods, which is, known as the ‘wave specirum’. The waves that are longer in both length and period travel faster than shorter waves and, as waves spread out fiom a disturbance, so waves of differing lengths intefere with each other as faster waves overtake the slower ones. This interaction between the different wave periods produces an endless changing pattern in which crests seem to grow from nothing, then diminish to disappear and be recreated elsewhere. Seas close to the centre of a storm are very confused as waves of widely differing lengths and periods are mixed together to form ‘short crested’ waves, but the waves become better sorted into groups of similar celerity as they spread out, so the sea becomes more regular and the waves are ‘long crested’. Wave groups can be identified as a sequence of large waves separated by regions of calmer water, which explains the old sailors’ saying that ‘every seventh wave i the biggest’. though it may be that every fourth or tenth wave is the biggest, depending on the particular mix of wavelengths. | Resultant sea surfac Wave crest & wave trough coincide The bunching of deep water sea waves into groups by interference The slightly longer and faster wave 2 is overtaking wave 1 in the diagram below. (The vertical scale is greatly exaggerated) Direction of travel, (or propagation) —=> ah a Interference between waves of similar lengths moving at almost the same speed bunches the resultant waves into groups. Individual waves appear to form at the back of the group, grow in height as they move towards the middle of the group and then diminish to nothing as they reach the front of the group. coincide 3rd wave group 2nd wave group ‘Ist wave group — ite _ Individual waves have only a transient existence in deep water as they are being continually formed at the back of a group and destroyed when they reach the front. Wave energy actually spreads out at the speed of the wave group and the ‘group velocity’ is half the speed of the component waves’ speeds in deep water. A rough analogy of this (for readers who can remember their primary school sports days) is two children with slightly different lengths of stride running as a pair in a three- legged race. When the legs that are tied together move in phase they can run at full speed, but eventually the two different strides will get out of phase and the children: fall over, so they must pick themselves up and star again. Experienced three-legged race competitors will have learnt that the best way to win is not to fall over which requires running at a measured pace slower than their usual sprinting speed. Waves cannot co-ordinate movement, so they simply ‘tip each other up’ interference and consequently the group and the energy. ithin it advances at a much slower speed than individual wave celerity.Chapter 2 - The environmental forces acting on an AHTS vessel 3700) Wind usually varies in both strength and direction luring any given period, so a really fully-developed sea consist of a range, or ‘spectrum’ of wavelengths and, periods spread over a fan of directions, as shown by the following diagrams. Peak period Wave energy ° 0 Wave period ‘Tw’ seconds Wave energy 60° -30° 0 +30° +60° A wave spectrum in a fully-developed deep ocean sea 78 9101112 Average period ‘T's Wave energy is usually spread over a range of directions in a real sea. 34567891011 Beaufort wind scale Primary direction 430° +60° Optimising a ship's design to withstand the worst conditions that it is expected to operate in requires sea states to be mathematically defined. Wave height and. period data has been collected and analysed over the years from around the world, though a record of wave heights produced by any particular set of conditions ill be very variable. A general measure of the sea's roughness can be given by the average height of the highest cone thind of the waves recorded over a particular period, which is known as the ‘significant wave height’ or ‘hs However, there is no simple relationship between wind speed and wave height as, even in open ocean conditions, this depends on the sea’s topography (such as variation in the water depth and disposition of bordering coastlines), the duration of the wind, its fetch as well as the wind speed. Also, interference between different component waves occasionally creates, nally high ‘rogue waves’ that may be twice the significant wave height. The wave’ energy per unit area of a disturbed sea surface increases with the square of the wave height, so if the height of a wave doubles as it moves from the back of the group to the middle, then energy within the wave is increased by a factor of four. Wave data is used to develop statistical models of wave energy spectra for particular significant wave heights, which shows how the energy is spread over the range of wave periods. The ‘Bretschneider’ model is used. for open ocean conditions whilst the JONSWAP’ model applies to confined continental shelf seas, such as the North Sea. The JONSWAP spectrum is narrower than the Bretschneider model for the same significant wave height, as wave energy in confined waters is more concentrated around the predominant wave period and gives shorter and steeper waves than in the open ocean Most of the wave energy in the world’s oceans tends to be periods between 7 and 9 seconds,“anino jyBray anom ays 1225104) 0} auly uonRDANp 40 y>raf ayoiidosddo ay) umop anowi Uay ‘paysoa1 5} (yymos6 anom juny jym voKvinp 40 y>iaf sayzta) aain2 WorRBanp 40 YyDraf Gun} jun ss0120 anoW PUD ap)s puoy.-2faj ay2 UO paads pulm ym 43} S2¥13NO1DN NI HOL3 009005 oor O0€ 00% 001 0802 09 0S OF OF oz oeszos » £€ Zz ° JSNOLLIGNOD aLvis AavaLS a set wo Ht + pp (S0u 01) sse WL LK | a § ee I F (e104 02) sto we s/woL soL wb . { sve wig 5 (s10uy 06) sos wo fo s/usi hr 56 we HX sool we (S104 op) s/woz we (101% 05) wor suse ay AWM (s10u 09) s/wioe wuiz SL NZL 146 449 aue Juz NOILWENG ONIN 24L esas = NIN S$ (awit fo pouiad p sano papsoras sanom fo %E-E 3Sabi0) ayy fo 1yb1ay aBosany ay} s1 1yBIay arom yuB2ifiubis ay]) z= 7861 ‘1'0u ‘6 awinjon ‘Abi2Ug uDa29 aU} “GQ . ‘sunsa1 ,dVMSNOI, 242 Buysn Ay2ojan puym quoysuo2 o sof pouad pup ayBley anvm fo uorr2ipeld, Woy & (6961 d¥MSNON 372/01d anvm vas yz0N 3UJ0f 243 Uodn pasvg sanin2 Uo!DIpasd 3yBIay anom yuor1fiUbISChapter 2 - The environmental forces acting on an AHTS vessel (SSN Waves ‘feel’ the restricting effect of the seabed and so start to slow down when the water depth is less than about 40% of the wave's length, so the term ‘shallow’ is relative to the wave's length. The water particles’ orbital paths are progressively squashed in the vertical plane until the water depth is less than about 4% of the wave's, length and the water particles are just oscillating, horizontally back and forth. At this point, wave speed is, governed by only the water depth and so all waves longer 25 times the depth of water travel at the same speed that decreases with decreasing water depth, causing the waves, to shorten and steepen. Waves also increase in. height with decreasing depth, as energy is fed into the waves from deeper water faster than it is progressing forwards ‘A tsunami is a very extreme example of this growth in wave height as it approaches the shore. Wave motion and speed of propagation in very shallow water When waves move in water depths of less than about 4% of the waves’ lengths, the water motion is almost purely horizontal and the waves’ speed is governed solely by the depth of the water. If the water depth ‘D’ < 0.04 then the wave speed ‘C’ = \/gD m/s Where ‘g’ the acceleration on earth due to gravity = 9.81 m/s? Waves slow down and shorten as they move into shallower water, but the crests move faster than the troughs so they progressively overtake the preceding troughs by initially becoming steeper on their leading faces before curling over and breaking in very shallow water. Waves also increase in height as they slow down because energy is being fed into the wave train from deeper water faster than it is progressing forwards. The growth of wave height as waves move onto a shelving beach mean water level — Nearshore waves — Shelving beach Waves passing over depth contours at angles other than at 90° change direction due to refraction, so shoals can act as a lens and focus wave energy onto an area on their leeward side. The wave focusing effect of a submerged shoal due to refraction The shoal acts like a convex lens by focusing waves on the leeward of the shoal into a region of heightened seas bordered by areas of unusually calm sea for the prevailing weather conditions. Focus ‘Submerged shoal‘A ship in the open sea, has ‘six degrees of freedom of ‘movement’ namely surge, sway, yaw, roll, pitch and heave. Only the last three of these motions produce an imbalance between the forces of buoyancy and weight to create a force or moment that acts to move the ship back towards its state of equilibrium, When a vessel pitches or rolls, the centre of gravity moves out of vertical alignment with the centre of buoyancy to create a righting moment to restore the ship to even keel, oF to the upright, respectively. Similarly, an excess of buoyancy or weight acts to restore a ship to its ‘equilibrium draft when its heave momentarily creates an imbalance between these two forces. Such restorative motions are examples of ‘mass-spring- ‘damper’ systems in which each motion has a natural period of oscillation, “Tn, so ships have natural roll, pitch and heave periods. The natural periods differ for each motion and can be estimated by approximating the motions to types of ‘simple harmonic motion’. Any. one of them is amplified when the ship encounters waves of a similar period to the motion’s natural period. Ship's officers will be aware of the dangers of heavy ‘resonant’ or ‘synchronous’ rolling when. their vessel encounters waves with the same period as its natural roll period, Resonant motion is limited by. energy’ being dissipated through turbulence and/or waves created by the motion, which is particularly important for restricting the maximum angle of a ship's synchronous roll. Surge, sway and yaw create no net counter force oF ‘moment to reverse these motions when a ship is at sea and they are only rhythmic in a rough sea because the waves that cause the motions are altemating 2t approximately regular intervals. Harmonic Motion: A ship's six degrees of freedom of movement Only pitch, roll and heave are restorative motions with natural oscillating periods when a ship is in @ seaway. These natural periods can be estimated by applying the following general formula for Simple Path of ship's centre of gravity Natural period ‘Tn’ = 2m. seconds ‘Spring constant heaves and the ‘spring’ constant created by these two motions. The heave inertia term is a ship’s mass plus the mass of water moving up and down as the ship the force/metre of hull immersion at the equilibrium draft. The inertia terms for rolling and pitching are a ship's transverse and longitudinal moments of inertia and the moments of disturbed water about the ship's centre of gravity respectively, whilst the ‘spring’ constants are the transverse and longitudinal righting moments/radian of rotatione Chapter 2 - The environmental forces acting on an AHTS vessel JANN A swimmer uses resonant heave to climb out of a swimming pool by rhythmically pushing down and pulling up against the poolside to build up vertical motion. The swimmer produces excess buoyancy by first pushing himself deeper than the equilibrium level he floats at. He then starts to pull himself up and as he moves closer to equilibrium, the excess buoyancy diminishes, but he increases the pull by his arms to maintain upward acceleration. if the upward pull reaches its maximum just as the swimmer passes through the equilibrium then he will raise himself higher above the equilibrium position than his starting point was below it. He now has excess weight and so he starts to sink. The excess weight diminishes as he again approaches equilibrium, but now he maintains the downward acceleration by pushing down and if, as before, this push peaks as he passes through the equilibrium position, then he will achieve a greater depth than before. The swimmer builds up the vertical oscillations, so that after two or three cycles, he has sufficient upward momentum to heave himself out of the pool. Most people automatically find the correct thythm and it takes much more thought to explain the process than it does to actually do it Resonant motion is a continual exchange between potential energy, which peaks when the body is at the maximum distance from the equilibrium, and kinetic energy, when the body is passing through the equilibrium at the maximum velocity. It only occurs if the disturbing force or moment is synchronised with a body's natural response period and the body's response is always a quarter of a cycle behind the disturbance. The ‘90° phase lag’ between a disturbing force and the motion it causes is an important feature of any form of synchronous motion. A swimmer using synchronous heave to climb out at the pool side jai Pismaximum Ps zero um his zero v= maximum v=zero The motion response to rhythms of varying periods At resonance, the height gained by the swimmer lags 90° behind the force ‘P’ in his arms that creates the motion. However, if he were to pull and push at a faster rate, the motion would lag his muscle force by 180°, whilst a much slower rhythm would allow his motion to catch up with the force in his arms. The damping effect of friction and turbulence in the water limits increased height gained at resonance. TH = The swimmer’s natural heave period Height ‘h’ gained for a given pull oO 0 TH +h is maximum ‘h’ is the swimmer’s height above 4 the equilibrium position. = € i 3 2 3 The vertical velocity ‘v’ equals the slope of the curve for the height ‘h’ Rhythmic Period(BRR Pore 1 - THEORY A ship’s motion at sea depends on the vessel's natural response periods and the period ofthe waves it encounters, as shown in the above photographs of a large, modern Offshore Support Vessel (OSV) in heavy head sea consisting of wave periods to its natural pitching period. (courtesy of D Byrne)Chapter 2 - The environmental forces acting on an AHTS vessel ASN) ‘Resonant’ or ‘Synchronous’ motion (continued) AA ship's heave and roll can be estimated over a range of ‘wave periods by multiplying the height or slope of the wave by the ‘Response Amplitude Operator’, or ‘RAO’. The RAO measures how much a ship’s motion amplifies the wave height or slope and it increases from zero for calm. water to a maximum at the ship's natural period for the particular motion, beyond which it decreases to 1 for ‘wave periods much greater than the ship's natural period. Heave dissipates a lot of energy through the turbulence and waves that it creates by pumping water up and down under the ship's hull, so it is heavily damped with a large added water mass (see page 40) that effectively increases the ship’s mass by about 80% and limits the RAO at resonance to roughly between 1.2 and 1.4 Lap ———>! Estimating the natural heave period of an AHTS vessel (see pages 40 & 41) term = the ship's displacement + the mass of disturbed water = 1.8 ‘AT’ ig’ constant = is the force/metre of hull immersion at the equilibrium draft. LBP = 52m, Beam = 15m, ‘WPA’ = 608 m? 1 Draft = 5m, Displacement ‘Ar’ = 2760t, ! ! | Natural heave period ‘TH’ ~ 2n |—!-84T_ seconds pg (WPA) Where ‘g’ = 9.81 m/s? & ‘p’ = 1.025t /m? Maximum bollard pull = 60t gle un iz 2 Hee ai [2 $2 ae 2 a8 = ry 8 5 3 Bo o14 On the crest Weight = buoyancy V(up) is maximum, Vis zero So, the tug’s natural heave period ‘TH’ = 5.7 seconds Approximate Heave Response Amplitude Operator Curve 23 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 1213 1415 Wave Period ‘Tw’ seconds The resonant heave motion of the ship Resonant or synchronous motion lags the disturbing force by 90° (a quarter of the wave cycle), so the upper and lower limits of heave occur on a wave's falling and rising slopes respectively. Weight > buoyancy 0 206- autys aseyd 08L- In the trough Weight = buoyancy (down) is maximum On the rising slope > weight(BR) Poet-THEoRyY ‘Resonant’ or ‘Synchronous’ motion (continued) 4 ‘When the ship is heaving in resonance with the period of causing the ship to roll. A vessel rolls more easily than it the waves striking it on the beam, then the upper and will heave up and down, as the forces of weight and Jower limits of the heave are maximum (about 130% of buoyancy remain in equilibrium during the roll and the the wave height for the AHTS vessel on the previous mass of water disturbed by rolling is much less. This also page) on the falling and rising wave slopes respectively. means that the water's damping effect is also much less This is due to the motion lagging the changing sea height than for heave, unless itis artificially increased by anti that is causing it by 90% (see page 41). However, the roll devices such as bilge keels, fin stabilisers and roll ‘waves will also move the forces of weight and buoyancy damping tanks. in and out of vertical alignment over the wave cycle, s0 Estimating the natural roll period of the AHTS vessel on the previous page A ship’s natural roll period can be estimated as follows: RZ _ 2nRv = 1 xem “Vg * fem Seconds Where acceleration due to gravity ‘g’ = 9.81 m/s? and ‘Rv’ isthe radius of gyration of the ship's mass + the added mass of water about the centre of gravity 'G’. ‘Rv’ is a fraction of the ship's beam ‘B’, which depends on the ship's weight distribution, which can be taken to be roughly constant for a given set of hull proportions, so the ship’s beam and GM in metres can be taken as the only variables in the above equation. Natural roll period ‘Tr’ = 21 B So, the natural roll period ‘TR’ ~ A constant /¢yq seconds The IMO Code of Intact Stability gives the equation below for the constant The constant ~ 0.746 + 0.046 meee ~ 0.086 BP Tim) \¢-—— LBP = 52m ‘The AHTS vessel's particulars LBP = 52m, Beam = 15m, Draft = 5m & GM So the constant = 0.746 + 0.138 So, the natural roll period Approximate Roll Response Amplitude Operator Curve ------ RAOR = 2.0-— Anti-roll device such as bilge keels and roll damping tanks will limit the maximum RAO Maximum roll angle Maximum wave slope 0 05 10 15 20 25 RAOR = o1Chapter 2 - The environmental forces acting The JONSWAP data for continental shelf waters on page 38 indicates that waves with a period of 5.7 seconds have a significant wave height of 2.8 metres for a wind speed of 22 knots and a fully-developed sea; whilst the ‘graph on page 34 shows that the waves have a length of about 54 metres. If the AHTS vessel is subjected to such ‘waves on the beam, then the tug's rolling motion will the vessel's natural roll period of 11.5 seconds is much longer than that of the waves. The ship rolls into each rising wave slope and then rolls back into the wave's falling slope, so its natural roll response is curtailed by the wave's changing slope. The ends of the roll consequently coincide with upper and lower limits of the ship's resonant heave motion lag the changing slope of each wave by 180° because The AHTS vessel’s heave and roll in 5.7 second, 2.8 metre high beam waves The wave period is considerably shorter than the tug’s natural roll period, so the changing angle of heel lags the changing wave slope by 180° and the ends of the roll coincide with the upper and lower limits of the resonant heave mation on the falling and rising slopes of each wave. On the crest Weight = buoyancy V(up) is maximum g to starboard On the falling slope Weight > buoyancy Vis zero At the end of the roll In the trough Weight = buoyancy V(down) is maximum Rolling to port On the rising slope Buoyancy > weight Vis zero At the end of the roll Roll The maximum heave = h x RAOH metres Where: Wave height ‘h’ = 2.8 m & the RAOH for a 5.7 second period = 1.3 (see page 43) So, maximum heave = 2.8 x 1.3 = 3.64m, which exceeds the wave height by 0.84m So, the change in draft at the limits of the heave motion is + 0.42 metres The difference in pressure and lateral force is caused by the change in depth of hull immersion across the tug’s beam which, in turn, depends on its beam and the wave's slope plus the ship’s roll angle to the vertical. The wave slope can be estimated from the equation on page 35 and the roll angle is given by ‘multiplying the slope by the RAOR for the wave period (see page 44). The wave slope ~ 4 x a radians Where: The wave height ‘h’ = 2.8m, The wave period Tw = 5.75 4n2 7 57 vom ‘adians So, the wave slope = 0.17" = 9.9° to the horizontal The RAOR for a 5.7 second wave period = 0.15 (see page 44) So, the wave slope = 1.4 x So, the maximum roll angle ~ 0.15 x 9.9° = 1.5° to the vertical So, the angle ‘max’ at the end of a roll = 11.4° to the sea surface(RF Por 7 - THEORY A ship's response to beam waves that create resonant heave (continued) q ‘The following diagram shows a possible way of very pressure changing with depth is perpendicular to the roughly estimating the peak lateral force of beam-on water's surface, rather than vertical (see page 34) waves on the ship. Note that the gradient for water Estimating the lateral force on the vessel in 5.7 second, 2.8 metre high, beam waves The ship on the previous pages is at the end of a roll to port and the lower limit of its heave cycle. P = 52.0m, Beam 5.0m Still water upright draft = 5.0m The mean draft increase due to heave is 0.42m 1.5° to the vertical Direction of wave travel ‘g'= 9.81m/s2 ‘p= 1.025 t/m? —— = Equal pressure lines are assumed to be parallel to the sea surface (see page 34) Port draft ‘dp’ = (5.00 + 0.42 + 7.5 tan 11.4°) cos 1.5° ~ 6.9 metres ‘Starboard draft ‘ds’ = (5.00 + 0.42 - 7.5 tan 11.4°) cos 1.5° = 3.9metres Pressure P1 = pgds cos 9.9° = 1.025 x 9.81 x 3.9cos 9.9° = 38.6kN/m? Pressure P2 = pgdp cos 9.9° = 1.025 x 9.81 x 6.9cos 9.9° = 68.3kN/m? Pressure @ Fi &F2 = 0.5(P1 + Po) = 0.5(38.6 + 0.0) ~ 19.3kN/m? Pressure @ F3 & F4 = 0.5(P2 + P1) = 0.5 (68.3 + 38.6) = 53.5kN/m? ‘kr’, 2, 'k3" and ‘ka’, are correction factors that estimate how the effective vertical area and its distance from the ship's centreline changes with the hull shape at different depths Effective hull area ‘Al’ @ F1 = k1 x LBP x ‘ds’ = 0.70 x 52 x 3.9 = 142.0m? Effective hull area ‘A2’@ F2 = k2 x LBP x ‘ds’ = 0.65 x 52 x 3.9 = 131.8 m? Effective hull area ‘A3’@ F3 = k3 x LBP x ‘dd’ = 0.30 x 52 x 3.0 = 46.8m? Effective hull area ‘Aa’ @ Fa = ka x LBP x ‘dd’ = 0.35 x 52 x 3.0 = 54.6 m? Stbd force = 19.3 A1 + 53.5.3 = 5048KN, Port force = 19.3 A2+53.5A4 ~ S661kN So, net lateral force to starboard = 5661 - 5048 ~ 613KN or approximately 62.5tEz Chapter 2 ~ The environmental forces acting on an AHTS vessel (AT A ship's response to beam waves that create resonant heave (continued) The diagram below shows the same very rough method the beam of the ship of the previous pages when it is at Sor estimating the peak lateral force caused by waves on the upper limit of its heave cycle. Estimating the lateral force on the vessel in 5.7 second, 2.8 metre high, beam waves LBP = 52.0m, Beam = 15.0m Still water upright draft = 5.0m The ship on the previous pages is at the end of a roll to stbd and the upper limit of its heave cycle. The mean draft decrease due to heave is 0.42m. 1.5° to the vertical Direction of wave travel 9.9° to the horizontal 9°=9.81m/s? sve | —— = Equal pressure lines are assumed to be parallel to the sea surface (see page 34) 9.9° to the vertical 0 Port draft ‘dp’ = (5.00 - 0.42 - 7.5 tan 11.4°) cos 1.5° = 3.0metres Starboard draft ‘ds’ = (5.00 - 0.42 + 7.5 tan 11.4°) cos 1.5° = 6.0metres Pressure P1 = pgds cos 9.9° = 1.025 x 9.81 x 3.0cos 9.9° = 29.7kN/m? Pressure P2 = pgdp cos 9.9° = 1.025 x 9.81 x 6.0c0s9.9° = 59.4kN/m? Pressure @ Fi & F2 = 0.5(P1 + Po) = 0.5(29.7 + 0.0) = 14.9kN/m* Pressure @ F3 & F4 = 0.5(P2 + P1) = 0.5(59.4+29.7) = 44.6kN/m? “41, k2', 4a! and ‘ka’, are correction factors that estimate how the effective vertical area and its distance from the ship's centreline changes with the hull shape at different depths. Effective hull area ‘A1’ @ Fi = ki x LBP x ‘dp’ = 0.60 x 52 x 3.0 = 93.6 m? Effective hull area ‘Az’ @ F2 = k2 x LBP x ‘dp’ = 0.55 x 52 x 3.0 ~ 85.8 m* Effective hull area ‘As’ @ F3 = k3 x LBP x ‘6d’ = 0.35 x 52.x 3.0 = 54.6 m? Effective hull area ‘Aa’ @ Fa = k4 x LBP x ‘dd’ ~ 0.30 x 52 x 3.0 = 46.8m? Stbd force = 14.9 A1 + 44.6 Az ~ 3830KN, Port force = 14.9A2+44.6 Aa = 3366kN So, net lateral force to port = 3830 - 3366 = 464KN or approximately 47.3t‘The calculations on pages 46 and 47 rely on estimating the effective vertical areas on each side of the hull and the average pressures acting on them when the ship is at the ends of its roll. However, the difference in the maximum depths between the vessel's low and high sides and, hence, the pressure difference are based on the tug's angle to the waterline and its maximum beam, but the lateral separation between any two opposing vertical immersed surfaces is only constant for a totally boxshaped hull. AHS vessel hulls have a very short depth box-shaped midships section, though the upper regions of the aft half of the hull are box-shaped above the chine right up to the stern. The vertical surfaces at the bow and stern in the hull’s lower regions are narrow ‘where there is litle difference in the depths and, hence, ‘water pressures between their port and starboard sides, A proper calculation of the peak wave force using ‘rip theory involves slicing the heeled hull with the wave slope superimposed upon it into short transverse sections and determining the wave force on each slice that can then be added up to give the net lateral peak wave force on the whole hull Assuming the lines of equal pressure to be straight and parallel to the wave profile is also a source of error in the calculations, as page 34 shows how the rate of pressure changing with depth increases from = mininium value beneath a wave crest to its maximum value beneath a trough. The lines of equal pressure are converging towards the trough and this tendency is ‘most marked in the water near the surface but decreases exponentially with increasing depth, relative to the length of the wave. This reduces pressure on the: down hull side whilst increasing it on the up hull side so significantly reducing the peak beam wave force # the hull width is a significant proportion of the wave. length. Using strip theory to calculate the peak lateral force of beam waves The hull shape is divided into transverse strips of equal length with waterline at the end of the roll superimposed on each strip so that the wave force on each strip can be calculated and then added up to provide the total peak wave force. Each strip is assumed to be parallel sided with its section taken at mid-length | The way in which waves distort the increase of pressure with depth of water (See page 34) If the ship's beam is a significant portion of the wave's length, then the converging tendency of lines of equal water pressure from a wave crest to a trough significantly reduces the pressure difference across the hull at the ends of the roll and, hence, the peak wave force. Ship’s beam = 15m Wavelength ~ 54m Crest Trough \ 1 [Half wave length ——>} =] Lines of equal water pressure are most closely stacked in the troughChapter 2 - The environmental forces acting on an AHTS vessel (ASI) A ship's response to beam waves that create resonant heave (continued) The ‘k’ factors used in the calculations on pages 46 and 47 are very rough guesses to compensate for the variation in the area and shape of the vertical areas over different regions of the hull and they do not even consider the effect of the wave on the pressure gradient with the depth of water. As such, the calculated peak lateral wave forces are probably over- estimations by perhaps as much as 50%. They do suggest, however, that the peak wave force on a ship encountering waves on the beam of a period at or lose to its natural heave period is greater at the end of a roll into an oncoming wave than it is for the roll ending in a receding wave. Most seafarers would agree with this, as the strongest impact forces are nearly always felt at the ends of rolls to windward into an ‘oncoming wave rather than at the ends of the leeward rolls and this is before taking Stoke's, or surface, drift into account (see page 32) The procedure used on pages 45-47 to estimate the peak force of waves on the beam can be applied to waves of a longer period, provided that the RAO values and their accompanying phase shifts used to determine the vessel's heave and roll response to the waves are appropriate for the wave period. The estimated peak wave force will not necessarily be any more accurate than those on pages 46 and 47 but they will indicate hhow the force changes with increasing length of the waves. AHTS vessels are often expected to operate in significant wave heights of up to about 5 metres, which, have periods of about 8.2 seconds in continental shelf seas of unlimited fetch (see page 38) and wavelengths of about 100 metres (see page 34) /¢—— LBP 52m ——»1 I Displacement ‘AT’ = 2760t On the crest On the falling slope Weight = buoyancy —_ Weight = buoyancy Vis zero (down) is maximum Roll i to starboard At the end of the roll The vessel's heave and roll motion in 8.2 second, 5.0 metre high beam waves The AHTS vessel's particulars 1 LBP = 52m, Beam = 15m, Draft = 5m &GM=1.2m |) Heave period Roll period = 11.55, so RAOR ~ 0.35 (see page 44) Wave slope So, maximum heel The heave is in phase with the sea’s height, whilst the roll lags the wave slope by 180°. The wave period is shorter than the ship’s natural roll period but longer than its heave period, so each roll ends on a falling or rising wave slope but the upper and lower limits of the small heave motion occur on the crests and troughs respectively and so do not effect the peak wave force at the ends of the roll. Weight = buoyancy 5.75, so RAOH = 1.05 (see page 43) 5 Antik og Tenet 2 ezizsat OI 0.35x0.15 = 0.05" = 3° In the trough On the rising slope Buoyancy = weight V(up) is maximum. At the end of the roll Vis zero Rolling to port(SOY Pore 1 - rHEoRY A ship's response to beam waves with periods longer than its heave period (continued) a The following diagram uses the method shown on on the beam, Note that the very small heave motion ages 46 and 47 to roughly estimate the peak lateral does not affect the peak wave force at the ends of the force of 8.2 second, 5 metre high waves striking the ship roll, Estimating the lateral force on the vessel in 8.2 second, 5 metre high, beam waves The ship on the previous pages is at the end of @ roll to port and at its mean draft of 5 metres LBP = 52m, Beam = 15m Still water upright draft = 5m There is no significant effect of heave on the mean draft 3° to the vertical ‘p= 1.025t/m* — = Equal pressure es are assumed to be parallel to the sea surface (see page 34) Port draft ‘dp’ = (5.00 + 7.5 tan 12.0°) cos 3.0° = 6.6 metres Starboard draft ‘ds’ = (5.00 - 7.5 tan 12.0°) cos 3.0° = 3.4 metres Pressure P1 = pgds cos 9.0° = 1.025 x 9.81 x 3.4cos 9.0° = 33.8kN/m? Pressure P2 = pgdp cos 9.0° = 1.025 x 9.81 x 6.6 cos 9.0° = 65.6kN/m? Pressure @ Fi & F2 = 0.5(P1 + Po) = 0.5(33.8 + 0.0) = 13.9kN/m? Pressure @ F3 & F4 = 0.5(P2 + P1) = 0.5(65.6 + 33.8) = 49.7kN/m? “k1', ‘ka’, k3" and ‘k4’, are correction factors that estimate how the effective vertical area & its distance from the ship's centreline changes with the hull shape at different depths. Effective hull area ‘Ai’ @ F1 = ki x LBP x ‘ds’ = 0.70 x 52 x 3.9 = 131.8m? Effective hull area ‘A2’ @ F2 = k2 x LBP x ‘ds’ = 0.65 x 52 x 3.9 = 142.0 m? Effective hull area ‘A3’ @ F3 = k3 x LBP x ‘dd’ = 0.30 x 52 x 3.0 = 46.8m? Effective hull area ‘Aa’ @ F4 = k4 x LBP x ‘Sd’ = 0.35 x 52 x 3.0 ~ 54.6 m? Stbd force = 13.9A1+ 49.7 A3 = 4158KN, Port force = 13.9 A2+ 49.7 A4 ~ 4687kN ux x So, net lateral force to starboard ~ 4687 - 4158 =~ 529KN or approximately 53.9tChapter 2 - The environmental forces acting on an AHTS vessel (510) A ship's response to beam waves with periods longer than its heave period (continued) The calculation on the previous page relies on the same approximations outlined on page 48 and used in estimating the peak wave force for shorter 5.7 second, 2.8 metre high waves, though the assumption that the lines of equal pressure are parallel to the wave profile is more valid for the higher waves due to their longer wavelength. The estimated peak force for 8.2 second, 5 metre high waves on the beam is about 54 tonnes, which is approximately the average between the peak forces of 62.5 tonnes and 47.3 tonnes for the shorter 2.8 metre high wave on a rising slope and a falling slope respectively (see pages 46 and 47). This seems strange, as waves of 5 metres in height are almost twice as high as the shorter waves and have about 3 times the energy (wave energy increases with the square of the wave height), so we might expect the higher waves to create a considerably greater peak force. However, this would be to ignore the effect of the longer length and period of the waves, which reduces the maximum slope of the waves whilst also allowing the ship to heel over further from the vertical before arresting and reversing the roll. ‘Acnude analogy can be made by comparing the shorter and longer waves with using the brakes to stop a motor ‘ar. A driver putting his foot hard down on the brake pedal creates a large braking force that brings the car ‘quickly to a stop with a jerk and so can be likened to the action of the shorter period wave, whereas a more gentle application of the brakes results in a lower braking force that allows the car to travel further before it stops, which is more like the action of the longer wave. If our AHTS vessel were subjected to waves on the beam with a period equal to the ship’s natural roll response, then the maximum roll angle would lag the wave slope by 90° and so the rolls would end on the wave rests and, |.¢—— LBP = 52m ——> The AHTS vessel's response to 11.5 second beam waves ‘The AHTS vessel's particulars troughs, whilst the vessel's heave motion would be equal to and in step with the wave's rise and fall. This situation is known as ‘Synchronous rolling’ LBP = 52m, Beam = 15m, Draft = 5m & GM = Heave period = 5.75, so RAOH ~ 1.0 (see page 43) Roll period = 11.55, so RAOR = 2.0 (see page 44) x an? x 9.81 = 2.0 x wave slope ('h 1 ! 2m 1 y Wave slope = % radians Displacement ‘AT’ = 2760 So, maximum het = height) The heave is in phase with the sea’s height, whilst the roll lags the wave slope by 90°. This is @ case of synchronous rolling, as the vessel's roll period is equal to the wave period and the ends of the rolls occur on a wave crest or in a wave trough. On the crest On the falling slope In the trough On the rising slope Weight = buoyancy Weight ~ buoyancy Weight = buoyancy Buoyancy ~ weight Vis zero V(down) is maximum Vis zero V(up) is maximum, At the end of the roll Rolling to port At the end of the roll Rolling to starboardGMMR rett-tHeory “A ship's response to beam waves with periods equal to or longer than its roll period (continued) = If the AHTS vessel were subjected to the conditions that creates waves with 11.5 second periods, then it would be in hurricane force winds with 10 metre high waves with a maximum theoretical slope of about 8.5°, which would roll the ship 17° to port and starboard if the RAOR value is limited to 2 (see page 44). This would be a serious threat to a ship with such a low freeboard as our AHTS vessel and, in reality, the situation would be worse because the wave crests would be even steeper with green water breaking over the aft deck. It would be almost certainly fatal to hold the vessel on a heading, with such seas on the beam. However, smaller waves can create less threatening synchronous rolling in one or a combination of both of the two following situations 1. The ship is moving at speed in a following sea with the waves on a stern quarter, so the speed of the waves, relative to the ship's speed, is less than their speed of propagation and, consequently, their apparent, or ‘encountered’ period increases. Most seafarers will know of the slow corkscrew-like and uncomfortable rolling motion that can occur when a ship is moving at speed in following quarterly seas 2. The ship is subjected to long period swell waves on. the beam. All storms at sea create a spectrum of wave periods and lengths (see page 37) that includes waves of much longer periods than those that dominate the spectrum. Swell waves are wind generated waves that have spread beyond the disturbance that generated them, so the waves are ne longer being reinforced by the wind and the energy in each wave is distributed around an ever increasing circle around the centre of the storm that created thein, so their height diminishes. The water at the sturface of the swell waves is also in contact with the air that may be calm or blowing in a differene direction to the wave travel, so a proportion of the energy in each wave cycle is lost due to friction at the water-air interface (see page 32), which also reduces the height of the waves. Long period waves travel further for each cycle than shorter waves, so a swell almost always consists of only low waves with long periods and length that have travelled a considerable distance from their source, so they are well sorted and the sea is regular with ‘long crested’ waves (see page 36). Ifa ship is subjected to waves on the beam of longer periods than its roll period, then the ship moves in step. with the motion of the surface water, as shown in the following diagram. (On the crest Weight ~ buoyancy At upper heave limit Rolling to port ‘Swaying to starboard On the falling slope Weight = buoyancy Falling heave At the end of sway The vessel's heave and roll in beam waves with periods greater than 14 seconds The heave and roll motions are in phase with wave height and slope. The ship's motion follows the water molecules’ motion as they move in their orbits (see page 32), so it rises and falls half a wave height above and below the still water level and sways half a wave height distance from a mean position that moves slowly in the wave direction of travel, At the end of the roll In the trough Weight = buoyancy At lower heave limit Rolling to starboard Swaying to port On the rising slope Buoyancy = weight Rising heave At the end of the roll At the end of swayChapter 2 - The environmental forces acting on an AHTS vesse! (ISS The force of the waves in rough weather is, and always hhas been, a danger to any ship on the high seas through the stresses on the ships’ structure and the violent ‘motion that waves can produce. However, this treatise is ‘mainly concerned with the limits that waves impose on an AHTS vessel's ability to hold station and to maintain the heading necessary to follow a set track whilst handling a mooring at slow speed. The previous pages have concentrated on the effect beam seas have on a tug, as this direction usually creates the greatest problem for a tug handling a tow. Assessing the peak wave force is difficult as it depends on the wave period relative to the tug’s natural heave and roll response periods as well as the wave height, but the following general conclusions can be made: 1, The impact of a wave is most noticeable when its period is less than a vessel's natural roll period, as the ‘wave is curtailing the ship's roll that the previous wave has produced 2. The direction of the wave's lateral force is usually almost completely reversed every wave cycle, as the net force acting in the direction of the wave's travel due to surface drift is small relative to the peak wave force. The exception to this is when the wave period is close to the ship's natural heave period but less than its roll period (a ship's heave period is usually about half of its roll period). In this situation, the ends of the roll coincide with limits of the synchronous heave motion and the peak wave force greater at the lower limit of heave than at its upper limit because of the extra immersed depth of the ship's hull at the lower heave limit (see pages 46 & 47). Consequently, the net force of the waves in the direction of their travel is significantly increased beyond just what is due to surface drift. 3. The peak wave force increases with the square of the wave height for @ given wave period. This is not immediately obvious from the calculations in pages 46, 47 and 50, but the slope of a wave is directly proportional to wave height whilst the angle of heel, relative to the vertical, at the ends of the ship's roll is directly proportional to the wave slope. Consequently, the angle of heel relative to the sea’s surface and, hence, the difference in wave force across the hull is proportional to the wave height squared, assuming the angles are less than about 12°. ‘The wave action on the vessel can be regarded as an oscillating current in which the peak force is only relevant if it over-sttesses or breaks some component of the operation or is sufficient 10 knock the ship off its heading ifthe wind and waves are forward of the beam. ‘The net force due to surface drift is what must be opposed for the tug to remain on station or to hold its, track without consistently drifting to leeward and surface drift is only a relatively small fraction of the peak force, except for when the ship's heave resonates with the wave period Surface, or Stoke's, drift So, ih fox Water particle's orbital velocity ‘U’ = 7" x e » Where ‘h’ = wave height, ‘Tu’ = wave period, ‘n’ = wavelength & 'r'= the depth of the water particle beneath the sea surface Sia ope Stoke's drift ‘Us' can be givenas = Sx ¢ * Stoke's drift ‘Us’ Example: Wave height ‘h’ = 2.8m, wavelength ‘7 Water particle's orbital velocity ‘U’ at the surface 54m, wave period ‘Tw’ = 5.75 PEO = 154x1 = 154m/s gn So, Stoke's drift ‘Us’ at the surface = 1.5434" = 1.54 x 0.16 = 0.25m/s(BAY Poet - THEORY os Wave forces and a ship's ability to hold station (continued) . Data collected from wave rider buoys suggest that the periods and_mathematically-defined sea states for = surface drift rate is between 2% and 3% of the wind range of wind speeds. speed in a fully-developed sea, but significantly less The environmental forces (including the wave forces} than this for swell waves. However, itis the locally wind acting on ships built with dynamic positioning (DP} generated waves that cause the most station keeping control systems are analysed and programmed into the problems for a vessel and waves also have the indirect DP system as part of the design process so that the systems ‘effect of reducing the thrusters’ efficiency due to the produces the appropriate thrust responses to keep the pitching, rolling and heave motions that they create. vessel on its target position. The analysis should follow: All things considered, assessing the effect of waves ona procedures given by the ‘International Marine: ship is a complex process that can only be carried out Contractors’ Association’ (the IMCA) in their document with any degree of accuracy by a programme of — IMCA M 140 and the results can be presented as a DP detailed analysis based on the tugs natural response capability plot, as shown in the following diagram. An example of a DP capability plot Bow Ss Rotating current &ewind direction ‘The blue line represents the \it of the ship's capability to hold station when at least one thruster output is at 100% Stern ‘The wind speed is the average value at 10 metres above sea level over a minute and the current is 1 knot. The rotating wind and current are coming from a common direction.Chapter 2 - The environmental forces acting on an AHTS vessel (ISSN) Wave forces and a ship’s ability to hold station (continued) ADP capability plot indicates the limit of the vessel's ability to regain its station after being knocked off position. Capability plots are usually produced in sets showing the limits of the vessel's station keeping for different extents of thruster failure and each plot may also include envelopes for a range of different currents, The plots are produced by an analytical procedure that is based on a standardised ship response 10 idealised sea conditions specified in the IMCA M140 document and, as such, they do not necessarily totally reflect the vessel's station keeping limits in the real sea state it is operating in. Consequently, the plots are not a guarantee of the ship's performance in any particular situation, but they do allow for the station holding capabilities of different vessels to be fairly compared, The DP capability plot is for a vessel maintaining its position under DP control without any tow force acting, at the ship whereas an AHTS vessel engaged in anchor handling must generate the towing force whilst holding to a specified track. The DP capability plot on the previous page indicates that the least favourable heading to maintain is when wind and current come from about 25° forward of the beam, as the bow thrust isthe limiting factor for the ship holding the heading. It must also be appreciated that the full bow thrust relies on power being supplied by the shaft generators and so the maximum bow thrust will not be available if the tow tension requires the maximum bollard pull to be proteced (see pages 12-14 & 60) Ifa DP capability plot is not available to the ship's officers, then a veny rough assessment of the limiting environmental conditions for the wind, waves and current about 25° forward of the beam can be made as shown in the following diagrams. Rather than incorporating the calculations shown on pages 46-47, the net wave force is estimated by assuming the surface drift for the given wind speeds extends down to the tug's keel. This exaggerates the drift force, so it makes a rough allowance for the adverse effects of the vessel's motion on its capacity to withstand the net wave force. Estimating an AHTS vessel's ability to counter winds and current 25° forward of the beam $5210 ——_—_»! LOA = 59.0m, Max beam = 15.0m, Summer draft = 5.0m, Displacement ‘AT’ = 2760t Main propulsion Twin rudders and twin diesels, each driving a cpp in a Kort nozzle via a reduction gearbox Main engine power = 2 x 2575 bhp (or 1930 kW) at 1600 rpm = 5150 bhp (or 3860 kW) Bollard pull Maximum ahead thrust ~ 62t with no bow thruster load on the shaft generators Thrusters Bow tunnel thrusters - 2 x 7.5¢ thrust (each requiring 500 kW), Stern thrusters - none (Bow thrust is reduced if the main engines have insufficient power to produce the required bollard pull and generate the necessary electrical power for the bow thrusters from the shaft generators) Electric generating capacity Diesel generators - 2 x 350 kW (470 bhp), Shaft generators - 2 x 800 kW (600 bhp)(UBUBEY Pore 1 - THEORY ma A rough assessment of the limit of an AHTS vessel's ability to hold to a track (continued) = ag Estimating the lateral force for winds 25° forward of the beam Vessel's exposed lateral topside areas Formulae from page 27 1.0 Vue)? comm = 07 cow & 14 Frown = 290 Valle)? pig * “Sor t = 2 0.7. Vudkt)? 90m Fvowa = 90 Vitke)? 0.7 = WO Ifthe above formulae relate to an average wind speed over one minute, then the results should be increased by 50% to allow for gusts and by a further increase of 50% to allow for the loss of the efficiency of the thrusters due to the ship's roll, pitch and heave caused by accompanying waves. So Frwy = 2 x LAG? & Frwa = 2 x Ve? Maximum lateral bow and stern forces in near beam winds allowing for gusts and motion Wind speed (knots) 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Bow force (t) 0.2 1.0 22 40 62 9.0 122 15.9 Stern force (t) 01 02 Os 09 14 19 2.6 34 Estimating the lateral force for currents and waves 30° forward of the beam The forces of surface drift and current can both be estimated by the formulae derived on page 29. The bow and stern drag factors are 0.8 and 0.4 respectively, which gives an overall factor of 0.6. OS LBP x d = 26.0 x 5.0 = 130m? Foot ~ 130 Vetke)? 980 [= 1.43 Veo? t » 0.40 7 i ezOTn ; Fy(cia = 130 Ve(kt)? 555 [= 0.72 Veta & The surface drift is assumed to be 3% of the wind speed, which overestimates its effect on the tug’s immersed hull, as the drift speed decreases exponentially over the depth of the ship's draft. Maximum lateral forces on the bow and stern due to steady near-beam currents and waves Wind speed (knots) 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Surface drift (knots) 0.15 030 045 060 075 0.90 1.15 1.20 Bow force (t) 00 01 03 05 08 13° 19 21 Stern force (t) 00 00 01 03 04 06 09 1.0 Current speed (knots) | 0.5 1.0 15 2.0 25 3.0 Bow force (t) 04 14 3.2 57 8.9 129 Stern force (t) 02 07 1.6 29 45 65 The tug's capability to hold position against environ- the estimated bow thrust needed to counter ‘mental forces close to the beam is limited by the power different combinations of near-beam winds, seas of its bow thrusters, so the table on the next page shows currents,‘Chopter2.—The emironmenta forces ocing on on ANTS vesse) SSI | Broiigh assessment of the limit of an AHTS vessel’s ability to hold to a track (continued) Estimating the bow thruster load to counter seas and currents 25° forward of the beam The highest force on the bow for a given wind speed and current occurs with both directed at about 30° forward of the beam. The wind force includes the surface drift due to the waves in a fully-developed ‘ontinental shelf sea. The ship is assumed to be in water depths exceeding 50 metres, so shallow water effects do not apply (see page 28). The figures in the squares give the bow thruster loads in tonnes Wind speed (knots) Current (knots) [MBE = Less than 60% maximum thrust, [ll = 60% to 80% maximum thrust IMI = 80% to 100% maximum thrust, JNJ = More than 100% maximum thrust The percentage thrust values assume that there is sufficient electrical power from the shaft generators for the maximum bow thrust of 15 tonnes to be available (see page 14). It must be appreciated that the above table; like the DP fetch. Furthermore, both the above table and the capability plot, is only a guide to the limits of the vessel's capacity to hold to a track with the wind and current close to the beam. Sea conditions are very variable depending, as they do, on the depth of water and its variation, as well as the duration of the wind and. capability plot relate to the tug holding its position without being encumbered by a tow, so they do not take the effect of the tow tension into account. Consequently, it is the masters decision and his alone as (o whether or not the tug can continue with an operation.(Gomtents Semeductory note Dee at bridge control on AHTS vessels Sersoring the manoeuvring controls Se tension measurement ‘Dee effects of bow and stern lateral thrust with no tow jessck manual heading control Seesick auto heading control The action of joystick auto heading control Se eystick auto heading control's ‘memory’ works Seesick auto heading control and wind data input The effect of the tow on controlling the vessel BP control Tee DP control console The DP thruster configuration SP performance for a vessel without a tow Pesing a vessel into the DP control mode ® performance for a vessel with a tow When to use automated control Geetrol and anchor handling at speeds in excess of 3 to 4 knots 60 62 64 64 65 66 69 70 n 73 74 7s 79 80 81 84 85 86 87 Controlling an AHTS vessel’s thrusters and rudders The aft bridge control position on an AHTS vessel hotograph by MichaelIBD] Poet -rHeony Introductory note Anchor handling operations, surface towing and offshore supply work demand different capabilities, regarding the tug's manoeuvrability and so require different methods of control = Anchor handling involves an ALTS vessel either moving ahead whilst towing out the anchor and its moorings for deployment or being towed astem by the mooring winch on the offshore unit after recovering an anchor and its moorings from the seabed. The vessel speed is less than 2 knots for deep water chain moorings, but 5 to 6 knots for shallow water wite moorings. Moorings must be run out along a prescribed track and the weight of tow acts down on the tug’s stem, which can threaten its stability when the tow leads off the quarter (see chapter 4). m= Surface towing is carried out at a speed of between 4/and 5 knots with the tow leading up from the tug's towing winch, which is a safer arrangement as regards to its stability. Furthermore, the tow need not keep to a predefined track, so the course can be altered to suite the prevailing wind, seas and current, which means the tow can be kept leading close to right aster. The tug is steered by rudder actions rather than using bow thrusters, which are not very effective at these speeds. = Offshore supply work requires the tug to hold station and heading close by the offshore unit and with its aft deck within reach of the unit's crane, so it relies heavity on lateral thrusters. Atug’s power management must be set up atthe start of an operation to either provide the maximum bollard pull or for the maximum electrical power to be available to the ancillary equipment, such as the winches and auxiliary thrusters (see page 14). Surface towing needs maximum bollard pull, whereas holding station on rig supply work requires maximum electrical power for the auxiliary thrusters. The decision is less clear for anchor handling, as deepwater mooring operations demand a high bollard pull whilst also relying on the bow thrusters to keep the tug on track. Furthermore, a tug must hold to the line heading against high tow tensions when bringing a large anchor over the stem roller, which uses the main winch as well as the thrusters and. main propellers, so the power demand is high. The power supply arrangement must be configured to meet an operation’s most demanding stage, so if there is not enough power available to carry this out in the prevailing conditions, then the task must be postponed (a specific example of this dilemma is given on pages 151-153) Tugs with cp main propellers and shaft generators are usually powered by diesel engines running at a constant, rpm with the main thrust entirely controlled by the pitch of the propellers. However, some tugs may have combinator control in which the maximum thrust can ‘only be achieved by increasing the engine rpm with the propellers at full ahead pitch and the shaft generators disengaged, Pitch control only (most common) The engine turing at constant rpm all the time develops full ahead thrust at maximum pitch. 3 | The range of extra available | 2 | thrust as load on the shaft | 28 | generators isdecreased | <2 % oo : | generators are disengaged | S - | and engine pm is increased | 4 <4: Astern Asterr Thrust available with the shaft generators E at full load and the engines at constant rpm The two methods of controlling the thrust from main propulsion cp propellers Combined pitch and rpm control The propellers turn at constant rpm up to maximum pitch and 65% of full thrust. The thrust is increased further by increasing the engine rpm.Chapter 3 ~ Controlling an AHTS vessel's thrusters and rudders WH ent requires two men to operate the vessel during anchor handling inthe right hand seat rol system is visible‘The aft bridge on some smaller AHTS vessels with more or servicing a platform, though he will still requine basic auxiliary machinery are built with just the drivers assistance for operating the tow winch and deck tugs seat for working the tug’s controls whilst anchorhandling winches during the more complex stages of an operation A typical AHTS vessel's aft bridge control station designed for one-man operation The vessel Twin main cp propellers and rudders with two bow thrusters Instrumentation mounted above the windows 1 Radar, 2 UHF radio, 3 Towing pins & shark's jaw stopper controls, 4 Towing & work wire tension gauges with upper limit settings, 5 Navigation light panel, 6 VHF radio, 7 Deck tugger winch controls, 8 Tow drum & work drum controls, 9 Searchlight controls, 10 Deck light panel, 11 Joystick controls, 12 PA system, 13 Main propeller pitch control, 14 Rudder tillers (can be ‘operated in tandem or split), 15 Bow thruster control, 16 Fire alarm panel, 17 Machinery alarm panel, 18 Navigation display, 19 Emergency stops, 20 CCTV monitors, 21 Pitch, rudder and heading indicators, 22 Wind speed & direction indicator, 23 Tow tension readout. ‘The aft bridges om larger more complex AHTS vessels by working the deck machinery and other engi include a second seat for an officer to support the driver systems, as shown in the diagram on the following:Chapter 3 ~ Controlling an AHTS vessel's thrusters and rudders 6S The aft bridge control on AHTS vessels (continued) Lid Typical plan of an AHTS vessel's aft bridge control station designed for two-man operation The vessel Twin main cp propellers and rudders, two bow thrusters, an azimuth thruster and a stern thruster Instrumentation mounted above the windows 1 Navigation display, 2 Radar, 3 Systems display & keyboard (for selecting different displays), 4 DP console, 5 Main propeller pitch control, 6 PA system, 7 Rudder tillers (can be operated in tandem or split), 8 VHF radio, 9 Joystick control, 10 Stern thruster control, 11 Azimuth bow thruster control, 12 Bow tunnel thruster control (can operate either or both tunnel or bow thrusters), 13 UHF radio, 14 Towing pin controls, 15 Sharks' jaws controls, 16 Searchlight controls, 17 Machinery alarm panels, 18 Deck light switches, 19 Navigation light panel, 20 Fire alarm panel, 21 Tugger winch controls, 22 Tow winch drum controls, 23 Stowage drum controls, 24 All winch power, clutch & gear controls, 25 - Bulk liquid cargo pump controls, 26 Bilge & ballast pump controls, 27 Winch tension readouts, 28 Main propeller pitch, rudder & heading indicators, 29 Wind speed & direction indicator, 30 CCTV monitors. The two officers sit in swivel chairs mounted on fore & aft rails with the driver on the wheelhouse’s port side and the supporting officer working the on the starboard side.(REAY ort 1 - THEORY The diagrams on the previous pages show how the main manoeuvring controls are grouped together at aft bridge fon consoles in reach of the operator’s seat, but monitoring the effects of his commands is also important. A navigation plot showing the tug's heading, the track it is to follow and the rig’s position (hence also the lead of the moorings that the tug is handling) must be in clear view of the operator as well as indicators showing rudder angles, the thrust of each thruster and the tow tension measured at the winch. A thrust vector display is usually only available om @ DP console (most new AHTS vessels are equipped wish DP), but it should be possible for manufacturers w= produce a standalone display and site it where it can be easily seen from the operator's control station. The lengths ofthe vectors and the thrust values indicated am the display will be based on the power input to the thrusters and so do not account for any lass of thrust cassaa by the ‘Coanda effect’ (see pages 15-16) when the tug = ‘moving ahead or astern through the water. Navigation plot with ‘ship's stern up’ inset Monitoring the vessel’s thrust, heading and position The diagrams below are examples of how to present navigation, thruster and tow tension data on the aft bridge of an AHTS vessel engaged in a deep water anchor handling operation. Thrust and tow tension Tow tension 165¢ The inset in the navigation plot shows a relative motion large scale ‘stern up’ plot of the vessel, so the display matches the view of the operator at the aft bridge control station. The arrows on the thrust and tow tension display show the individual thruster levels (red is 80% - 100% of maximum thrust, yellow 60% ~ 80% and green less than 60%). The black arrows show the resultant thrust and yaw moment. The resultant ahead thrust is less than the tow tension, as the thrust must only overcome the tow tension’s horizontal component. Tow tension measurements are normally based on sensing the tipping moment, or ‘torque’, of the tow against the winch seat, which depends on the diameter of the turn coming off the winch barrel. This is often not very precise, as the diameter of this turn changes with how many layers, or ‘wraps, of tow wire are on the winch drum, the diameter of the tow wire and how well it is spooled on to the drum, Furthermore, itis the tow tension’s horizontal pull that the tug’s thrust overcome, rather than the total tow tension, w includes the weight of the tow acting downwards on stern. Nevertheless, a sudden rise in the tow tension ‘warning that the tug may be getting into a danges situation, (see page 74 and chapter 4) so it should monitored at all times.» Chapter 3 ~ Controlling an AHTS vessel's thrusters and rudders (65000) A tug's lateral thrust at the bow and stern is used to stem, but the main propellers and rudders can typically create either bodily lateral thrust or yaw moments or a generate a lateral thrust at the stern that is at least twice combination of both. The diagrams below do not — that of the bow thrusters’ maximum output. consider how lateral thrust is produced at the bow and The different combinations of bow and stern lateral thrust on a vessel with no tow x = Centre of rotation (is always closest to the end of the vessel with the smaller lateral thrust) Maximum pure yaw moment, zero lateral thrust. Centre of rotation is amidships. Yaw moment reducing, lateral thrust increasing. Centre of rotation is moving closer to the bow. ® Zero yaw moment, maximum pure lateral thrust. There is no centre of rotation. The maximum lateral thrust at the stern in this example is about twice that at the bow. Lateral thrust scale LE | 100% 80% 60% 0 60% 80% 100% Port Percentage of maximum lateral thrust Stbd(NGEY Port 1 - THEORY The previous page shows how yaw and lateral movement commands can put conflicting demands on a vessels lateral thrust capacity at the bow and the stern. If the tug’s thrusters and rudders are operated by their individual controls, then it will be obvious to the ‘operator that increasing the yaw moment will reduce can also be operated through a joystick control thar consists of an azimuth thrust control and a yaw knob Operators must appreciate that the way in which joss control uses the available individual thrusters and rudders i response to the operator's commands is programmed into the system, which is also‘how it resolves conflicting demands om the bodily sideways thrust and vice versa. However, the bodily thrust and yaw moment on most AHTS vessels the bow and stern thrusters for controlling the heading ame Iateral movement. A typical joystick control for an AHTS vessel with high lift rudders ‘The yawing moment is controlled by a knob separate from the azimuth Azimuth thrust control thrust control, which sets the direction and magnitude of bodily thrust. Take Optional auto command heading settings button Sh The examples below show how the joystick and yaw controls can work the thrusters and rudders. Vessel stationary and swinging to starboard about amidships with maximum yaw moment wer r Port engine going ahead, stbd engine going astern Zero net fore & aft thrust, starboard bow thrust = starboard stern thrust from the port rudder.The joystick software should be programmed to suit owners. The following diagrams show how the the tug’s handling characteristics that have been programme for a tug with conventional rudders may determined in its design stage and then tested in the differ from a similar tug with the same thrusters but builder's trials before handing the tug over to the fitted with high lift rudders. Possible joystick programmes for two different vessels being turned short round (The coloured envelopes show the ranges of thrust programmed for joystick contro!) es 100% 80% 60% ° 60% 80% 100% Port Percentage of maximum lateral thrust Stbd Midships centre of rotation The control for the vessel with the high lift rudders is programmed to direct the ‘screw race away from the vessel's other rudder. Astern Ahead Ahead Astern thrust thrust thrust thrust Tug with conventional rudders (See page 20) ‘Tug with high lift flap rudders The jaystick controls of both above vessels have been programmed to limit the thrust of any thruster to 100% of their maximum capacity(NERY Port 1 - THEORY Joystick manual heading control (continued) Yaw commands control the ship’s heading and if the vessel is holding its heading against a strong wind off the bow, then allowing the head to fall off to leeward nearly always means losing control of the vessel's position as well. Consequently, system designers should programme the joystick control to prioritise yaw commands over azimuth thrust commands when there is insufficient thrust available to fully comply with both, regardless of which was put into the system first. Ia command is made through the joystick of either of the two tugs on the previous page to also move the vessel to port, then the system should reject the azimuth thrust command, as the bow thrusters are thrusting to port at full load to meet the maximum port yaw command, which has. priority over a port azimuth thrust command. The system should also sound an alarm to alert the operator when it cannot fully comply with the azimuth thrust setting. Lateral azimuth thrust, commands are usually given priority over fore & aft a commands, though a system may increase the all) thrust against a rudder to comply with the yaw command. If the maximum yaw command is insufficient 9 hold a ship against the yaw moment of a strong, wis off the bow, then it may be possible to bring the vessels head up to windward by increasing the lateral thrust leeward at the stern. This is no longer a pure yaw act as the ship will pivot around a point forward amidships and so move bodily to leeward, though does provide a chance of keeping control of the ships heading, Ifa tug has tunnel thrusters at the stern as well as the bow, then the joystick may be programmed to fi uuse the stem tunnel thrusters to respond to ¥ commands when they are available and only reson the rudders as a second option. Stem thrusters ineffective at high levels of main propeller thrust due the Coanda effect (see page 16) and should disconnected in these circumstances. Joystick at the maximum yaw rate to port with no azimuth thrust command Joystick at the maximum yaw rate to port with stbd azimuth thrust command Holding the ship's head against the yawing moment of a wind off the port bow 1 - The wind yawing moment is greater than the maximum port yaw command so the ship’s head is falling off to leeward. 2- The increased starboard thrust at the stern is sufficient to overcome wind yawing moment, so the ship's head is forced back up to windward,‘Joystick manual heading control (continued) = There is no formally agreed order of priority of commands between the system manufacturers, so the ‘only way to find out how the joystick works is to test it. Joystick control on most modern AHTS vessels is a component of a DP system that also has a simulator mode for training purposes, so the joystick control Chapter 3 - Controlling an AHTS vessel's thrusters and rudders (6S) settings can be tested in port without the thrusters actually running, Officers joining a vessel for the first time should use the simulator mode and observe the thrust vector plot to familiarise themselves with the responses the system makes for different joystick settings. The joystick control usually has an option for the ship's, gyto compass data to be fed into the system so that it can hold the vessel on a heading set by the operator in a similar way to that of an autopilot. The software works ut the yawing moment to apply from the following, equation: The equation that determines the applied yaw moment in joystick auto heading control Heading error ‘eh’ (epsilon s) = Set heading - gyro input Yaw moment ‘M’ to apply = Ah (#2 4 deh dt Ab, Bh and Ch are constants determined by the designers and fine-tuned during installation trials. The constants Ab, Bh and Ch are programmed into the system when it is installed in the vessel. Rate of change in heading error, €h = Heading error aand fe hdt = Accumulated error Thrust ‘F” Bh [eh + Chfehdt tonne-metres _ Yaw moment ‘M’ (t-m) = Length ‘LE (mm) “onnes | The equation looks complicated, though it is just mimicking the actions of a good helmsman steering a ship underway with the rudder alone. The helmsman thas a course to steer whilst, at the same time, he can see the ship’s actual heading and so the amount of helm he applies depends upon the heading error. As the ship swings towards the course heading, the helmsman first reduces the helm to an extent and then puts it amidships before applying counter helm to check the swing as the ship's head comes onto the correct course. ‘The timing and extent of checking the swing back on course depends on the rate at which the heading error is changing. Finally, if the vessel tends to steer slightly off course with the rudder amidships due to the wind, then the helmsman keeps a constant few degrees of helm to keep on track, which is the equivalent of the accumulative errr, ‘The auto heading control equation’s constants ‘A’, and ‘C’ are equivalent to the autopilot settings of ‘helm’, ‘counter helm’ and ‘bias’ (or ‘weather helm’). However, unlike an autopilot where the settings can be altered by the officer on watch, the constants‘, ‘B’ and ‘C are not, adjustable by the operator. They are set by the technicians who install the DP system and fine-tune its, software during the performance trials. If auto heading control has not been properly tuned, then itis possible that the ship's head will continually oscillate around the set heading, which indicates that constant ‘A’ is too small relative to “B. (This is the equivalent of a helmsman continually failing to apply enough counter helm to check a swing, so the head always overshoots the target heading.) The constants can be changed ‘onboard if a person has the authorisation code that gives access to the programmable software, though this is best done under the guidance of the DP_ makers However, the operator can adjust the ship's draft input, which is usually inputted at the main DP console. This tells the system how heavy the ship is and so adjusts the constants to increase the thrust demands as displace- ment increases. If the draft input is not properly ‘updated, then the system will still work, but it will not perform as well as it can do.‘The auto heading control receives heading inputs from the gyrocompass at regular intervals of about one second so it updates the error ‘eh’ between the gyro data and the set heading at the same rate. The system must distinguish between port and starboard errors, so. if errors are positive when the ship's head is to port of the set heading, then errors must be negative when the ship's head is to starboard of it, The system then calculates the following: = The rate of change of error ‘deh/dt’ in the interval since the last error. ‘= The accumulated error ‘eh dt’ from the time that the auto heading control was selected. the system multiplies ‘den/dt’, ‘eh’ and ‘feh dt’ by their respective constants, ‘N, ‘B’ and ‘C’, and then adds up the three terms arithmetically (i.e. terms can be positive or negative, depending on the whether the error is to port or starboard and whether it is increasing or decreasing) and transmits the sum to the software that controls the thrusters. Auto heading control should be programmed prioritise the yaw commands required to maintain set heading over complying with any azimuth th command and, if pure yaw is insufficient to hold ship at the set heading, then the system sh ‘automatically carry out the actions shown on page ‘without any intervention by the operator. Ifan auto heading control just consisted of the terms based on the instantaneous heading error the rate of change of error, then it would settle ship on a heading that could be some degrees off set heading depending whether or not there were underlying external yaw moment acting on the such as seas off the bow or stem. ‘The accumu heading error is the system's effective memory and: it provides the system with the ability to ‘learn’ yaw command required to counter any bias in yawing moments needed to hold the vessel to the: heading, as shown by the diagram on the foll age. Auto heading engaged at time 0 when shi North (0) Attl ehi = h-@r deh _ 01-00 dt ti- to fen dt = en1+eno 11~The ship is swinging to port atti, -2- ‘e’, ‘de /dt’ and ‘fedt’ are negative and rate of error change for ship 1 but reduce or even The action of the auto heading mode of joystick control Starboard errors are negative The auto heading control will increase the starboard yaw command to correct the port negative error p's heading = 00 and set heading = h Port errors are pos The ship is swinging to stbd at t1 ‘e’, and ‘fe dt’ are negative, ‘de /dt’ is posit reverse it for ship 2.Chapter 3 ~ Controlling an AHTS vessel's thrusters and rudders (7A STbd STbd $ Sls wosleae EB /e S16 iP |e g Port Port to the wind on the vessel's starboard bow. | Ship's heading oscillating as the! {s+ system ‘learns’ to counter the t wind yawing moment The effect of the accumulative error term in joystick auto heading control Time The accumulated error is the area under the heading error graph and so it will not change when the heading error is zero. Ship's heading is | relatively steady 1 t& In this situation, the joystick auto heading control has been selected at to and by tx the accumulated error to port is sufficient to create a starboard yaw command to counter The accumulated error increases until it creates a yaw command that is sufficient to counter the yawing ‘moment of the wind and sea when the vessel is lying steady to the set heading with both the instantaneous heading error and rate of change of error being equal to zero. The basic operating principle of the auto heading control is simple, but it must be appreciated that the system can only respond to the data that is put into it. The accumulative error may reliably counter a wind yawing moment acting on the ship, but if the gyro data is the only input, then the system cannot ‘know’ whether the yawing moment it opposes is due to a strong wind close to the bow or a weaker wind closer to the beam. Inputting a heading change command increases the heading error, which is added to the ‘existing accumulative error, so the system can only build up a new bias when the heading errors have been sufficiently large to cancel out the previous ‘memory. If, for example, the set heading of the vessel shown above is changed so that the wind moves from the starboard bow to the port bow, then the thrusters will initially continue to bias the yawing moment to starboard as if the wind is still tying to swing the vessel to port. This will increase both the position error and its rate of change so the ‘B’ and ‘A’ terms in the control equation will be working against the ‘C’ term until the build up of heading errors has wiped out the previous accumulative error and is sufficient to produce a port yaw command to counter the wind yawing moment that is now trying to swing the vessel to starboard,[BRI Port 1 THEORY How joystick auto heading control's ‘memory’ works (continued) - ‘The input of a new heading that will shift the wind from the starboard to the port bow initially greatly increases the accumulative port error term of the auto heading’s command equation, so the thrusters develop a large starboard yaw moment to bring the vessel's heading closer to the wind. This reduces the wind’s yawing, moment to port and then reverses it as the ship's head passes through the wind at which point the wind increasingly sustains the ship's rate of swing, whilst accumulated port error term continues to increase the ship's head passes through the new set heading heading error term of the yaw command then starts increasingly oppose the accumulative error term, will produce an overall yaw command to port conjunction with the rate of change of error term will eventually reverse the vessel's swing to starboard hdt ats Heading error ‘eh’ Accumulated error Port The auto heading response to a heading change to put the wind on the opposite bow The ship is holding a heading with the wind on the starboard bow when the operator inputs @ large heading change to starboard to put the wind on the port bow. The control must overshoot the new set heading in order to overwrite the initial accumulated error to port and accumulate sufficient starboard error to produce the yaw command that will counter the yawing moment due to the wind changing from being off the starboard to being of the port bow. It cam take several oscillating swings about the new set heading to achieve this.‘Chapter 3 - Controlling an AHTS ve An operator monitoring the changes in the auto heading control's thrust commands in response to a new heading input can be excused for feeling bewildered when he sees the thrust continue to swing the ship's head away from the new set heading However, the system must overshoot the target heading in order to wipe out the previous accumulated error and. establish an appropriate new one. The extent of overshoot is determined by the balance between the constants ‘X, ‘B’ and ‘C’ that is programmed into the system and fine-tuned by the maker's engineers during the installation trials (see pages 69-70). The greater the initial overshoot, the fewer diminishing heading oscillations are needed for the system to settle down, but it is quite possible that a large overshoot puts the wind too close to the ship's beam and consequently allows the wind yawing moment to overwhelm the thrusters’ capacity to reverse the swing. There is a risk of losing control of the ship if large heading alterations are made through the auto heading control when the vessel is in wind and sea conditions close to its operational limits. Ifthe ‘90 signals are the only data input to the auto heading, then the heading change should be made in small steps ‘with sufficient time between each step for the system to settle down, but if this is not a viable option, then the heading change must be made in manual control. However, itis also possible to input wind strength and direction signals to the auto heading control on ships with a wind indicaor providing that the yawing moments acting on the vessel for the different wind strengths and directions have been determined and programmed into the control system by its design engineers. The wind strength and direction data can then create thrust commands to be added to the control equation’s sum (see pages 69-70) and so adjust accordingly the yaw command to the thrusters as the wirid strength and/or direction changes. This greatly reduces the accumulative error term. in the control equation and consequently reduces the ship's oscillatory swing when a change of heading is put into the system. A small accumulative error will remain to account for the current and wave forces, but it will be far less significant in controlling the tug if the mathematical model of the wind forces and their yawing moments is reasonably accurate, The wind input should be selected whenever there is a significant ‘wind force and the ship is in auto heading control. Wind indicators must be mounted high up on the vessel's mast to be as clear as possible from parts of the ship's structure and normally there is a sensor mounted ‘on each side of the mast so at least one of them is, always exposed directly to the wind. (This may not always be so when the tug is close to and in the lee of an offshore platform, in which case the wind data measured by the sensor may not reflect the wind strength acting on the vessel as a whole.) Inputs Block diagram of the joystick auto heading control process Output jiqeyreae Jassnaq, 22p 2180] uonreDo|}e JeAsrsML ‘SPURWIWO2 49430 49/0 013402 SuIpeay Buisnuoud suonze Jeppns 7g 193sns4y i's thrusters and rudders 730An AHTS vessel should run out moorings with the tow leading dead astern whenever possible, but ifthe forces of the wind andjor current are pushing it off line, then the tug must be steered at an angle to the tow to hold. to its track. The tow tension consists of horizontal and, vertical components, but it is the horizontal component that most affects the manoeuvrability of the tug which must produce the ahead thrust to overcome the tow’s horizontal pull. Furthermore, if the tow leads to one side of dead astern, then the tug's thrusters must also counter the yawing moment and sideways force of the tow tension’s lateral horizontal pull against the towing pin, which will be acting to bring the vessel back in line with the tow’s lead. As the tow tension’s lateral pull increases, so the pivot point ‘moves closer to the towing pin near the stern and consequently the stern thrust and rudders’ steering ability decreases, so heading control is increasingly borne by the bow thrusters. Consequently, the power of the bow thrusters limits the angle at which the tug can be steered off the line heading for any given tow tension, wind strength and wind direction The effect of the tow tension on a tug when it is leading to one side of dead astern The tug’s ahead thrust must counter the astern pull of the tow tension’s horizontal component ‘TH’ whilst its force acting on the towing pin creates a yawing moment to starboard and a lateral force to port. The tug’s pivot point moves closer to the stern as tow tension rises. The tow’s astern pull ‘TH cos a is roughly equal to the tug’s ahead thrust if it is towing a heavy load at slow speed. The tow's lateral pull, ‘TH sin a”, increases by about 1.75% of its astern pull for each degree increase in the lead angle ‘a’ for lead angles up to about 10°. At slow speeds where a < 10°, tow’s lateral pull ‘TH sin a’ = 0.0175 a x tug’s ahead thrust Manoeuvring a tug with a tow is dealt with more fully in Part 2 of this book, but itis important to keep the tug as close to the line as possible to avoid putting the tow lead too far from dead astern whilst attempting to move the vessel back onto the line Bridge officers controlling a tug must also be aware of the isk of the vessel being capsized by the tow tension when the tow leads off to one side of dead astern and excessive lateral thrust is applied at the vessel's stern against the tow’s lateral pull. Any heading alteration that moves a heavy tow lead further from dead astern must be made with caution and an understanding of whatever system is being used to control the tug. If, for example, the vessel is under joystick auto heading control, then it must be realised that the system has no input of the tow tension’s horizontal pull or direction, so it will ‘learn’ to keep to the set heading by building up a large accumulated error, Any change of heading command will immediately change the accumulated error by the same amount and so the system can rapidly ramp up the lateral thrusters at the bow and stern if the change of heading is large. Furthermore, the tug may overshoot the new target heading by a considerable amount before it settles down, as shown by the diagrams on page 72. I is beter to take full manual control of the thrusters whenever 4 tug is handling a high tension tow in critical circumstances in which automatic increases in the thrust at the stern can lead to sudden rises in the tows tension, particularly if the tow is leading to one side of dead astern.DP control automatically adjusts a vessel's thrusters to one or more of the following position monitoring ‘Seep it over a target position at a set heading, provided equipment, or PME, at a rate of about once every ‘Bet the DP receives regular inputs from the gyro and second. A brief description of the types of position monitoring equipment (PME) Key to PME types, showing symbols normally used on DP console screen (see page 79). ‘TTautwire [PT A heavy weight is set down onto the seabed on a wire held taut by a self tensioning winch on a davit. The -davit head detects changes in the initial up and down lead and these are transmitted to the DP computer ‘which then calculates the changes in the ship's position from the initial depth input (effective up to about 160 metres water depth). 2 Sonar beacon (33) (number in circle indicates beacon frequency channel) The relative position of a sonar beacon on the seabed is monitored by an acoustic tracking head extended down through the ship's hull. The ship's movements are calculated from the changing ranges and bearings of ‘he vessel from the beacon (effective up to about 1500 metres of water but accuracy deteriorates considerably ‘beyond about 500 metres depth). 3 Artemis i A short range radar system in which the vessel's position is determined by the range and bearing measured “between an antenna on the ship and a matching transmitter/receiver on a nearby fixed offshore platform ‘(Gfectve up toa range of about 5 nautical miles). 4 Syledis ‘The vessel transmits a radio signal that triggers a response from matching transmitter/receiver units on “surrounding fixed positions, either affskore or on land. The ship’s position is calculated from ranges measured from these signals (effective up to a range of about 40 nautical miles) 5 Global positioning system (GPS) 3% The vessel receives a continual stream of positional signals from the network of GPS satellites (effective almost worldwide, but coverage can vary with both time and location). The approximate range limits of the systems above are only a general guide(BY Pore 1 - THEORY DP control (continued) If the target position is set at some distance from the vessel's position, the speed at which the ship is to move towards the target must be manually put into the DP so that it can create a secondary target that moves towards the real target at the set speed. The target position itself need not be stationary, so the DP can be programmed to keep the ship at specified range and bearing from a sonar beacon fixed to a mobile remotely operated underwater vehicle (or ROV) without straining the ROV's umbilical. However, although many madern AHTS vessels are equipped with DP, they are not usually provided with all the PME options shown on the previous page, such as the sonar tracking equipment that is essential for operating with an ROY. Some PMEs, such as the Artemis short range radar or the Syledis radio system, can be easily installed when a tug is mobilised for a specific job, but GPS is the PME most likely to be used on most vessels for anchor handling operations. The raw navigation data from any PME provides the position of its sensor, be it a GPS aerial near the top of the mast or the sonar tracking head below the keel, so the data must be corrected for the ship's motion i response to the waves. Consequently, it is essential that the vessel is equipped with a heave, pitch and roll ‘motion sensor (or VRU) that also sends data to the DP at the same rate as the PME. The DP calculates the thrusts necessary to control the ship's position by applying the same three-term control equation shown on page 69 to the lateral and fore & aft Position errors, as well as the heading error, so it will work with inputs from the gyro, a PME and the pitch and roll sensor. However, the DP software includes a mathematical model of the lateral and fore & aft wind forces acting on the ship due to winds from any direction relative to the ship's head, so it responds quicker to changes with less movement off station the wind sensor data is fed into the system. ‘The exposed topside area depends on the ship's draft, so wind data should be augmented by manually inputting the draft (see page 73). Manual inputs Joystick, manual heading The vessel is controlled ‘manually by the azimuth and yaw controls CCU omer The inputs for the three basic modes of control available on a DP consol Inputs that improve the performance of the control modes Essential inputs for the control modes to work at all PME data filtering Tee RES BOs ai CostasDP control (continued) The input data from the selected monitoring equipment (ie. gyro heading, position and wind force) is processed through the following steps: 1, Fach new piece of position data is assessed for its reliability and is rejected either if it has changed from the previous data beyond a certain limit programmed into the process by the manufacturer, or if itis exactly the same as the previous data. The DP console screen warns of this by causing the appropriate selection button start to flash. 2. The DP control system relates to the ship's lateral and fore & aft axis, so the system must fitst use the gyro input to convert the true bearing of the position error to a bearing relative to the vessel's head and then convert this to lateral and fore & aft co-ordinates. 3. The raw lateral and fore & aft pos ordinates are corrected for the offsets appropriate to the particular PME sensor so that the position error relates to the designated control point. 4. PME position errors are affected by external factors, such as how many satellites are available for a GPS fix and their distribution in the sky, so the raw data is continually varying in its reliability. The DP predicts, the lateral and fore & aft errors for each fix by applying the ship's mathematical model to the thrust ‘demands made in response to the previous fix, which is similar to a deduced reckoning, or DR, position. ‘The DP then interpolates between the predicted and PME position errors (ideally, two or more PME’s should be selected at any one time) using a process known as the ‘Kalman gains’ to obtain the most probable or filtered’ position errors to be used in the lateral and fore & aft thrust demand equations shown below. If the PME data seems to be erratic, then the operator can increase the weighting of the predicted errors and so bias the filtered errors away fom the PME errors by manually ‘relaxing the Kalman gains’. This can be done by degree, but it must be appreciated that the DP almost totally ignores the PME data when the maximum degree of relaxed Kalman gains is selected, so this should not be done without careful consideration. The relaxed Kalman gains only apply to PME data, not to the wind or gyro inputs. The DP control equations for the yaw moment, lateral thrust and fore & aft thrust Yaw moment'M' = An [25% Lateral thrust ‘Fyy’ dew Fore & aft thrust Fix’ = Axx [Ge + Biehl + Ch{ehdt tonne-metres Ay al + Byylewl + Gy[ew dt tonnes *] + Buxlexx] + Cyyfexdt tonnes ‘en’ = Heading error and ‘An’ ‘Bh’ & ‘Ch’ = Yaw moment constants ‘eyy’ = Filtered lateral position error and ‘Ay, ‘Byy' & ‘Cyy’ ‘ex Filtered fore & aft position error and ‘Ax’, ‘Bx’ & Cox’ Lateral thrust constants Fore & aft thrust constants 5. The constants ‘A, ‘B’ and ‘C’ can be manually increased for each of the three control equations by adjusting the ‘gains’ settings, though their relative values are determined by the DP- manufacturer's engineers during the installation trials and cannot be altered by the operators, who do not usually have the access code to the programmable sofiware. However, the operator can alter the total gain settings, which should be decreased to reduce thruster activity when conditions are calm, 6. If the wind input is selected, then thrust and yaw moments derived from the control equations are added to those created by the wind speed and direction data, The overall thrust demands are sent to process that determines the individual thruster commands, which must also comply with the priority protocol programmed into the DP (ie. yaw demands are given priority over lateral thrust demands that have priority over fore & aft thrust demands)(WUWBY Port 1 - THEORY DP control (continued) If the navigation input fails, then the ‘A’ and ‘B’ terms of the lateral fore & aft control equations become zero. The DP alarms and goes into ‘model control’, in which only the residual ‘C’ terms in the affected equations create thrust demands whilst the unaffected yaw equation will continue to generate thrust demands as normal. (A gyro failure results in losing the position ‘commands as well because the frame of reference is lost, but this is much rarer than PME failures, which are vulnerable to extemal factors.) Model control is crude but surprisingly effective at limiting drift off station if the ship was previously holding to the target position in steady conditions. It gives the operator time to select a different PME or a different control mode, such as a joystick mode, or manual control of the individual thrusters. Ae Ear) fea OT) Deu el eer aca The TAL software (Thruster allocation logic to comply with the pi protocol) Draft as ship's displacement input De ace od Cites eee The basic DP control DP model control The integral, or accumulated error, terms are updated continually to maintain the average thrusts required to keep the ship on station and hold its heading. These thrusts continue to hold the ship ‘approximately in position at the target heading if the PME or gyro inputs fail in steady, ere en Ca ae Carre Pera integral ae Cee uc) Re ed aa Pees integrals Target position eee en ould peeChapter 3 - Controlling an AHTS vessel's thrusters and rudders (75000) The DP console, such as the example shown in the diagram below, is the master station for selecting all the modes of control in a DP system. If DP control is selected, then thruster selection and commands are made by moving the cursor with the roller ball over and then pressing the ‘enter’ button at which point the DP will create a window asking for the ‘enter button to be pressed again to confirm the command. (Some manufacturers have replaced the roller ball and curser with a touch screen method for selecting the appropriate rectangle on the windows type display commands.) A typical ‘windows’ type DP console display Cursor roller ball command [iam Set of joystick Primary command button controls Key Screen commands & symbols | Vectors [Input unavailable [Input failing | —® 0-49% thrust 1 Input available ee Alarm | — 50-69% thrust input available & selected [\ Control settings | pm +70% thrust @ target position Control point { —® Overall thrust ee | —» Sea force Most of the selections made bring up sub menus in additional small ‘windows’ All commands made through the system require a confirmation to be entered The above display shows the motion (in ship's head up, relative motion mode) and thrust vector pages selected. All thrusters are selected and the no.1 thruster is close to overload whilst one of the GPS navigational inputs is about to fail(BOY Pore 1 - THEORY The DP control console (continued) ‘The DP’s windows operating system allows commands to be inputted in various ways, so position and heading changes can be made either in small pre-defined stages (typically 1 metre/1° and 10 metre/10° steps) or by Using the curser to move the target heading/position on the screen or by typing in the new position/heading or by selecting the present position/heading, The console allows a number of options to be displayed on the screen, so the ‘motion’ and ‘vector’ pages shown in the diagram on the previous page are just two of several ‘options that can be selected (though they are often the most useful to the operator). What information is displayed on each page can also be selected, though operators should be wary of being distracted by an excess of data, ‘The ‘controt point’ shown on the motion page of the console is the point that the DP uses as the centre of rotation (or COR) for yaw commands and the reference point for positioning the ship. There can be as many as four or five different options for the COR, such as amidships, the bow, the stern and the point(s) of any suspended piece of equipment (such as the diving bell on a dive support vessel), though rotating the ship about any COR other than amidships results in a bodily lateral movement as well as pure yaw and so increases the load on the thrusters (see page 68). This is especially s0 for CORs aft of amidships, as both the lateral thrust and yaw moment must mainly be provided by the bow thrusters, which are invariably less powerful than the ‘main propellers and rudders. s the DP control receives a new fix every second or so, it produces thrust commands that are sent to the "TAL! or Thrust Allocation Logic software, which is programmed to allocate thrust to individual thrusters in away that is suitable for the ship and complies with the order of command priorities. The fixed element of the Kalman filter should be programmed by the system designers to ensure that thrust commands do not exceed the ship's capability. AHTS vessels do not have sufficient generating capacity 10 use all their thrusters at full power at the same time (see page 14, 60 & 151-153), so if DP is to control the ship with auxiliary thrusters capable of thrusting to their maximum capacity, then the software must be programmed for a reduced ‘maximum main propulsion thrust, Thrust demands can often require small but rapid reversals of direction that are best achieved by altering the balance between opposing thrusters, so the system is programmed to automatically set some of the thrusters in opposition to each other in ways that depend on the thruster arrangement. For example, the variable astern thrust of the bow azimuth thruster shown in the following diagram may be set to oppose a constant ahead thrust from the less sensitive main propellers at low thrust demands, Tze) The underside of the vessel a dynamic balance between these thrusters, so fine altering the balance between ther. the vessel's heading and position An example of the DP thruster alignment for a twin screw, twin rudder vessel 45 The main propellers (6 & 7) and forward azimuth thruster (3) are set up in opposition. Zero fore & aft thrust is the result of adjustments of the ahead or astern thrust are made by Atypical thrust response to adjusting > Vector page‘Chapter 3 ~ Controlling an AHTS vessel's thrusters and rudders (BA) Performance trials should be carried out with a manufacturer's engineer onboard whenever a vessel is equipped with a DP control system for the first time. ‘The system’s designers will have used the ship's data to programme the parameters that are non-adjustable to an operator, such as the ‘A, ‘B’ and ‘C’ constants in the control equations, but these must be tested and fine- tuned if necessary to ensure that the DP control is performing to the best of its capability. The following diagrams illustrate some of the typical symptoms that can be cured by adjusting the control equation constants. Vessel tracking ahead and astern of the target position Testing the DP control equations The contro! equations can be generically expressed as follows: A (rate of change of error) + B (error) + C (accumulated error) = Thrust demand Vessel tracking to port and starboard of the target position Motion page The constant ‘A’ is too low, relative to ‘B' in the fore & aft control ‘equation. The constant ‘A’ is too low, relative to ‘B' in the lateral control equation, ‘The trials should also test the effectiveness of the wind input and the mathematical model of the wind forces programmed into the DP. The mathematical model creates thrust demands in real time to oppose the force acting on the ship for the relative wind strength and direction input, so they should keep the vessel close to the target position and heading as the wind strength and direction are radically changing. This is in contrast 10 the DP control equations, which must ‘learn’ the thrust needed to counter such changes by trial and error (with the emphasis on the error). Building up accumulated errors is how the control equations fitst ‘forget’ the previous thrust bias and then ‘learn’ the bias appropriate to a new situation. However, if the wind input is included in the DP control, then the main thrust commands sent to the TAL unit should be created by the ‘mathematical model of the wind forces, but the model is unlikely to totally replicate the forces created by the ship's particular situation, as it does not include any current that may be running or the net wave force, which varies considerably both in time and place for a particular wind speed. The PME inputs are necessary to ensure that the vessel does not gradually move off the target position, but position errors should be much reduced by the wind input. The best way to test this isto put the vessel into DP control in moderate sea and wind conditions with the wind input selected. A large heading change is put into the DP after the vessel has settled over the target on a steady heading and its performance during the change of heading is noted. If the wind input is effective, then the ship will not move far off station, as the thrust responds in real time to ‘oppose the changing wind force as the ship's heading changes. The ship is then briefly taken out of DP control before repeating the same test without selecting the wind input to show its effect on the DP’s performance.(BR) Pant 1 - THEORY DP performance for a vessel without a tow (continued) ‘The following diagrams show a ship's typical response in moderate wind and sea conditions to a large heading change made in DP control without the wind input. The drift-off position during a 45° heading change without a wind input (The heading change was made to counter rising sea forces that were initially on the port beam.) 1 The yaw and lateral integrals show a port bias. Key 2 The ship begins to lose position & heading so > = Thrust at position the yaw and lateral integrals start to grow to = : port to oppose increasing sea forces. = Ji=sConeel poreiacy 3 The DP operator inputs a heading change to b= Control point at ‘6" port, so lateral thrust is lost to create the yaw ‘moment and the port position error increases. 4 The sea forces are increasingly directed on the bow and less on the beam. The yaw and lateral integral terms continue the thrust to port due to the port bias, which decays with the increasing starboard position and heading errors. 5 The yaw and lateral integrals and the fore & aft position error are sufficient to check the swing and the move away from the target after the ship has overshot the set heading. 6 The ship is moving back on position at the set heading. Fore & aft position error & integral The position error is measured The position error is measured towards the target, towards the target i Qhseain S ‘ astern Time Integral 2 6x 5¢ Position error 8x ahead 0 The integral and position error curves are not to the same scale. The apparent environmental force as shown on the motion page. (The display is shown in true motion before and after the 45° heading change.) The DP without the wind input ‘assumes’ the sea force is the opposite of its position bias, so it initially tracks round with the heading due to the bias in port thrust and the ship moves off to port and astern as. the bow comes further into the actual sea force. However, as starboard and ahead position errors accumulate, so the thrust bias gradually adapts to oppose the changing sea force direction and move the ship back on target, though it must overshoot to reduce the ahead bias.‘The previous page shows how fara ship in DP control without a wind input is likely to move off station ifa large heading change is made because on its initial set heading the ship is struggling against a rising sea that is, well off the bow and so creating a lateral force and yaw moment that is overloading the bow thrust. The large integral error terms in the lateral and yaw control ‘equations for the ship at its initial heading are ‘unlearnt’ by accumulating errors in the opposite directions, which is similar to the ship in joystick auto heading control (see pages 71-72). Consequently, the vessel ‘must overshoot its new set heading and move off the target position in order to build up the error integrals, needed to hold station on the new heading, However, full DP control is complicated by the fact that position error inputs relate to the ship's lateral and fore & aft axis, so they alter with the heading change as well as with the ship's bodily movement. The ship will thrust itself further off target whilst the old integral position error terms are being unleamt at the same time the heading is. changing, which creates thrust commands that appear bizarre to the operator but are the DD's logical response to the limited inputs itis receiving. Unlike the operator, the DP cannot see out of the window and see the change in the direction of the seas, so it has no notion of what is creating the forces. The DP shows the sea force as a vector equal and opposite to the vector sum of the thrusts created by the control equations’ lateral and fore & aft position integral terms. Consequently, the sea force vector includes the wind force 4s well as the current and wave forces if there is no wind input. Iwill initially track around with the heading change and ‘only gradually alter to show the true wind and sea force as the control equations, integral terms acquire sufficient errors to create the thrust bias appropriate to the new heading, The sea force vector without a wind input is not much use to an operator who can look at the sea, but it does indicate how DP control works. Many DP operators have found themselves in situations such as that shown on the previous page with the ship moving way off position with alarms sounding and black smoke belching from the funnels, The urge to do something is overwhelming but, tempting though it ‘may seem, the ‘present position’ command must not be selected. This initially reduces the thrust demands as the position error immediately goes to zero, but all subsequent position errors will be measured from where the vessel was when ‘present position’ was selected, so the ship must move even further from its, target position for the DP to wipe out its old accumulated errors and build up one appropriate to the ‘new heading, Selecting the wind input will not wipe out the control equations’ old accumulative error terms either, but its contribution to the thrust demands will be to counter the force and yawing moment due to the ‘wind for the ship's position and heading at the instant of each wind data input, so it may increase the time taken for the ship to regain its target position. ‘The situation is only resolved by wiping out the accumulated errors, which can be done by going out of DP and taking control by either manually operating the thrusters individually or through the joystick manual, heading control. Alternatively, a DP may have a ‘fast learn’ option that temporarily amplifies the ‘x’ and ‘y’ Position errors as they are added to the integral terms, 0 it greatly decreases the time taken to re-write the accumulative errors and consequently reduces the distance that the ship moves off target. An example of a ‘fast learn’ command (To be used if the environmental force, relative to the ship's head, changes rapidly) Position errors 8x Be bt Integrals 1B Ox dt & Eby ot The fast learn increases the update rate of the ‘x’ and 'y’ integral terms by temporarily amplifying the ‘x’ and ‘y' errors by a multiplier that decreases with time.(BAY Pare 1 - THEORY é a DP performance for a vessel without a tow (continued) ‘The ‘fast learn’ option should be selected as soon as the changing of heading command is made. Note that the “fast learn’ only applies to position errors: it does not apply to the heading inputs, so the ship must still overshoot the target heading. If there were a heading “fast learn’ option, then it would have to be selected after the ship had overshot its target heading, which would be sometime after the position ‘fast learn’ should have been selected. If the wind input had been selected from when the ship was put into DP control (or atleast from the time when the wind and seas rose to produce a significant force on the vessel) and the same heading change is ‘made, then the ship should settle on the new heading with less heading overshoot, deviation from the target, position and erratic thruster activity. The wind input should reduce the initial length of the sea force vector’s whilst both its length and direction should change more rapidly during the heading change, as the accumulated error terms in the lateral and fore & afi control equations should be smaller so they should update faster. AA ship must always be stopped in the water and clear of ‘any obstacles when put into DP control because the DP will start with zero thrust commands, regardless of any thrust the operator may have manually applied to keep the ship in position over the ground. This is because the DP control equations initially have no inputs so their outputs at the instant of selecting DP control will be zero. The DP must ‘learn’ how to counter the environmental forces by acquiring position and heading errors. This process can be greatly speeded up ‘with considerably less ship movements in any sea states higher than light airs if the wind input is selected. The ‘wind input is often de-selected in light airs because it tends to fail, as the anemometer is often too insensitive to consistently record very low wind strengths. The wind force on the ship is insignificant in such circumstances and the DP will work without the wind input, but itis highly advisable to re-select the wind input as soon as the wind starts to rise. If the vessel has two wind sensors, then the DP operator must ensure that the windward sensor is selected to avoid corruption of the data due to local eddies created by the ship's superstructure and rising flue gases from the funnels + DP control is most frequently used on an ANTS vessel to hold station when servicing an offshore unit, 0 itis important that the vessel is stopped and put into DP control at a distance of abwut 100 metres from the unit and ‘given at least 20 minutes to allow time and space for the DP to settle down. It is better to select at least two independent PME inputs, such as the Artemis short- range radar in conjunction with the GPS before closing in on the installation. The tug must only be slowly moved by DP control into its position close by the unit when it is holding its target position and heading. consistently within the limits of the prevailing conditions, which could mean holding position to within a metre without any noticeable yaw in calm weather. However, the vessel will move and swing around more than this if there is a significant sea running because the thrusters will almost certainly not be sufficiently powerful, nor be able to act fast enough, to completely counter the peak wave forces. This must be borne in mind when deciding on the distance off the unit that the ship can safely hold station. ‘This is really no different to controlling the ship by any other means, but it emphasises the point that DP can only make the ship do what it is physically capable of doing. ‘The operator must remain vigilant to changes in the prevailing conditions so that he can plan any heading adjustment with care and he must also be aware that the wind input can be adversely affected by disturbances, such as the offshore unit's crane moving when itis close to the wind sensor, as this may create inappropriate thrust demands. The operator must always be prepared to put the tug into manual control if there is sudden erratic thruster activity and move the vessel clear of the unit whenever necessary Ifa ship is to be moved in DP control, then the DP will effectively ‘sense’ hull resistance as a current to be ‘opposed. The thrust required to move the tug sideways will be very much greater than an ahead or astern move at the same speed. However, ahead or astern movements through the water significantly reduces the lateral thrusters’ effectiveness due to the Coanda effect (see pages 15-16) , s0 controlling the heading with bow thrusters becomes more difficult at speeds faster than about 1.5 knots.Chapter 3 ~ Controlling an AHTS vessel's thrusters and rudders SSI The DP ‘senses’ a tow’s horizontal tension simply as part of the force it must overcome, so the integral terms of the DP's control equations must build up sufficient fore & aft position errors to demand the thrust needed to keep up with the target that is set to move at the speed for a tow leading dead astern. However, the DP will be programmed for a reduced main propeller thrust, 4s power supply priority must be given t0 the auxiliary thrusters used 0 control the vesse’s heading and lateral position (see pages 14, 60 & 80). Tow tension is more problematic for the DP when the tow leads significantly to one side of dead astern, as its horizontal component has a lateral component that acts to pull the vessel sideways and swing its head round to bring the tow back to leading dead astern (see page 74). If DP control ‘were to be used during an anchoring handling tow, then the speed must be less than about 1.5 Ieots through the water and the stern should be selected as the centre of rotation. This means that the DP will use lateral stern thrust to move the ship sideways whilst controlling the heading with the bow thrusters, which consequently can be under considerable load. DP control is only suitable for slow speeds when the tow tension is usually high and so is probably the dominant force on the tug. Changes of heading to oppose lateral forces and yawing ‘moments created by the wind, sea or current, will have the following effects: ‘The balance beeen the fore & aft and lateral forces of the wind and tow acting on the tug alters. 2. The control equations’ frame of reference (ie. the fore & aft and athwartships axis) also alters. Both of these effects can make the DP control unstable if frequent significant heading changes lead to sudden and seemingly erratic changes in the thrust and loss of control over the ship. This can cause the tow tension to dangerously rise and/or lead further to one side of right astern (see chapter 4). This book does not recommend DP control for anchor handling tows, as it can suedenty increase the thrust against the tow (see pages 72 & 82) when it is leading to one side of right astern and so risk eapsizing the tug, How the DP might control an anchor mooring tow with the wind off the bow (Not recommended) The tow tension’s lateral pull acts against the winds lateral force with the wind force being slightly stronger in this example. Countering the tow and wind forces with the thrusters) 2) eae. A yntrol point & aes + centre of rotation set at the stern @ Moving target Depending on the tow tension, wind strength and wind direction, the DP may keep the tug on track by using the stern thrusters to counter the combined force of the wind and tow tension whilst the bow thrust holds the tug's head against the wind yawing moment, but there is a risk of the DP suddenly increasing the lateral thrust against the tow and so heeling the tug over to a dangerous degree.(BEY Pore 1 - THEORY OP performance for a vessel with a (continued) HITS vessels’ tow tension sensors tend to be unreliable (see page 64) and do not resolve the tension into its component forces, so the DP has no input to the tow's tension's horizontal pull to transmit the necessary thrust commands to counter the changes in this force when the tow lead alters with the heading, in the same way that a wind input produces thrust commands in response to the wind force changing with the heading. ‘The DP must ‘learn’ the effects of changes in the tow's lead by building up position errors in the integral terms ofthe lateral and fore & aft control equations, whilst the reference frame of the equations has also changed with, the heading change that altered the tow’s lead. This is very likely to destabilise the DP (see pages 82-83) if frequent or significant heading changes are made. The DP isa dumb machine with no imagination and little knowledge. yet it appears to do very clever things, whereas we humans are clever beings who have considerable imagination, yet nevertheless are capable of very dumb actions when we do not fully understand what we are doing, This is just as true for manoeuvring, the tug by manually operating the individual thruster and rudder controls as it would be if we used the DP. However, it is a mistake to believe that there is no need to understand a situation when we use DP because we believe it will automatically sort out any problem that arises. We must understand how the DP is working as ‘well as how the tug is affected by external forces acting upon it Automated control (eg the joystick control modes and DP) is useful if it achieves one or more of the following: 1. It relieves the crew of a routine task so that they are available for other work, although this must be set against the onboard skills and man hours required to maintain the automated system. 2. The cost of the system and its maintenance is less than the cost of the man hours saved, It increases the range of conditions that the vessel can operate under by doing the task better than a manual operator. ‘The ship's basic autopilot uses a two-term control equation based on heading errors and rate of change of the errors. It is a good example of very effective shipboard automation, as it is easily monitored by the officer on watch and is cheap whilst being simple to ‘maintain, so it frees up 24 man hours for every day that, it is in use, Furthermore, although it does not steer better than a good, alert helmsman who is concentrating on the job, it does not get distracted or ‘bored so it tends to perform better over time by making, smaller helm actions and consequently it improves the vessel's fuel economy on passage. The only caveat to using the autopilot all the time is that there is a small risk of the crew losing the skills of manual steering altogether, so that nobody onboard is capable of helming if the autopilot fails. This is especially so for some modern full-bodied hull designs that have a relatively large beam for their length or are operated with a slight head trim. These ships are what is known as directionally unstable (they tend to ‘tip over their /), which means that any yaw will develop into a full rate of turn if is not quickly checked, so they must be steered by frequent but small helm actions, which is, very wearing on a helmsman Both joystick and DP control demand constant attention, so neither free up the operator to take on other duties. Furthermore, the two systems are relatively expensive and require quite a high level of onboard skill to operate and maintain, so their only possible a: advantage is that they may control a vessel better than a ‘mantial operator, but this depends on the situation that the ship is in. An officer experienced in using the individual thruster and helm controls will set up most of them to meet the average thrust and yaw demanded by the particular situation the tug is in, so he need only adjust one or two controls to keep the vessel on track at the required speed and heading. Combining all of the individual controls into the joystick with manual yaw control probably does make it easier for an operator to direct thrust and control the heading. Operating the ship in joystick auto heading control would appear to be even easier, as the operator only needs to adjust the azimuth thrust control to move the tug in any direction, ‘whilst maintaining the set heading, However, although both joystick control modes can make the operator's task easier, some flexibility is lost, such as the option of using the rudders in tandem or splitting them, as the way the joystick uses the thrusters, to comply with joystick settings is programmed into the system. Furthermore, the basic limitations of the tugs capabilities still remain, namely: 1. The relative power available to the auxiliary thrusters and the main propulsion is determined by whichever power management option is selected (see pages 14 & 60). It may be that the joystick can only be used when maximum electrical power is selected, especially if the joystick control is a component of a DP system (see page 80). This would considerably reduce the maximum thrust available from the main propellers. . There can always be a conflict between the yaw moment required to hold a set heading and any lateral thrust demands (see pages 68-70). The way in which the joystick responds to a command is determined by how its software has been programmed by the manufacturer's engineers, rather than the operator, who has really only made a request for the joystick to do something, but has no control as to how it does itE Chapter 3 - Controlling an AHTS vessel's thrusters and rudders (S710 When to use automated control (continued) Joystick control is suitable for manoeuvring a tg without a tow at slow speeds, but anchor handling at slow speeds usually means that the tug is working with a high tow tension so the above problems are most likely to arise. The joystick’s inflexibility in how the thrusters are used may unduly limit the tug's capabilities. Furthermore, the joystick auto heading control of the steering may become unstable if frequent significant heading changes are made (see pages 72 & 74) DP control on dive support vessels is highly advantageous, as it removes a previous need for four point anchor moorings, which were very time consuming to deploy and recover. The DP is also very good for controlling a ship working with an ROV, which is sometimes carried out by AHTS vessels. However, the most common use of DP control on AHTS vessels is probably for prolonged close station keeping on a set heading when the tug is supplying an offshore platform. DP control could also probably work quite well when running out deep water moorings at slow speed, provided that the tow is kept leading close to dead astern. However, these are the circumstances which a ‘competent AHI bridge officer should find quite easy to deal with whilst also. providing him with practical experience. Using the DP for difficult operations in which the tug must be steered off line heading is nor recommended because the risk to the tug’s safety is too high if the control becomes unstable. DP adjusts a ship's position by altering the balance between thrusters that it sets up in opposition to each other (see page 80), so fuel consumption is high in DP control. Officers need to practice with the DP, but it should not be used just to keep a tug standing by in the general vicinity of a job when precise station keeping is not required, as the excessive fuel consumption will reduce the tug’s endurance. Any method of control that relies on lateral thrusters as well as main propulsion to maintain the tug’s heading whilst it moves along a prescribed tack becomes increasingly less effective a5 speed through the water increases, due to the Coanda effect (see pages 15-16). Consequently, any AHTS vessel engaged in a surface tow or handling a light wire anchor mooring and moving faster than about 3 knots should be steered mainly by its rudders. However, the pivot point will move towards the stern as the ship's head moves out of alignment with the tow's lead and the tow tension’s lateral pull against the towing pin increases, $0 steering control must be augmented by altering the balance between the two main propellers’ ahead thrusts. It is especially important, that the bridge officer keeps the rudders close to amidships when a tug i being towed astern at speed whilst recovering anchor moorings. The tug should be steered almost entirely by adjusting the balance between the main propellers’ ahead thrusts, which are also acting, as a brake on the tug’s speed. A significant rudder angle in this situation is likely to swing the tug broad on to the tow and so risk being capsized. Actually, it should not be necessary to steer the vessel in these circumstances, as the tow’s tension will automatically tend to keep the tug's stern aligned with the platform or pipe laying barge that is reeling it in’ with the moorings.The effect of a tow on AHTS vessel stability ‘A brief note on stability ‘Ganges in buoyancy distribution with an AHTS vessel's angle of heel ‘The effect of stern freeboard on an AHTS vessel's stability ‘SGeimum stability requirements for offshore supply vessels ‘The effect of the tow on a tug'’s stability ‘Se anchor handler’s loaded condition with a tow leading dead astern ‘The heeling effect on a tug girted by its tow ‘&tug's range of positive stability when the tow leads off the stern quarter ‘Tee NMD minimum stability criteria for anchor handling. ‘Galculating the tow tension components from the catenary data ‘Determining the maximum acceptable tow lead angle Tee tow winch ‘Tee emergency quick release system ‘Measuring the tow wire tension and payout length at the winch Seine tensiometers ‘Measuring anchor chain tension and payout length at the gypsy ‘Testing the calibration of a tension monitoring system ‘The important points regarding AHTS vessel stability 101 102 104 105 106 108 110 13 15 "7 19 120 122 ‘A tug must have adequate stability to withstand a tow leading downwards from the stern quarter. (courtesy of URS nv)(SOY Pare 1 - THEORY AA ship will float the right way up as it rolls and pitches in a seaway providing that the vessel’s weight distribution (which remains more or less fixed) interacts with the changes in buoyancy distribution in vessel to the upright. As the hull is heeled over by an external force, so the centre of buoyancy (ie. the geometric centre of the changing underwater hull shape) must move laterally to the low side of the centre such a way as to create a righting moment to return the of gravity. The basic principle of transverse stability (or transverse stability in a ‘nutshell’) A stable vessel heeled over to an angle of heel ‘8’ by an external force Buoyancy M G Zz Bo Bo K 7 N Weight As the hull heels from the upright to the small angle of heel ‘0, so the centre of buoyancy swings about the metacentre 'M’ from ‘BO’ to ‘BA’ which is on the low side of the centre of gravity ‘G’. The forces of buoyancy and weight now act out of vertical alignment and produce a righting moment to force the hull back to the upright when the external force is removed. The true horizontal separation between the forces of weight and buoyancy is known as ‘GZ’ and the righting moment is given by: Righting Moment iZ’ x The ship's displacement tonne-metres Movements of the centre of buoyancy for given upright mean drafts, trim and angles of heel depend solely on the shape of the vessel's hull and so itis determined by the ship's designers analysing the hullform data as it is rotated through incremental increases in the angle of heel over the operating. range of the ship's designed loaded conditions. This is normally achieved by analysing the change in the shape of the waterplane area for each of the selected conditions as the hull is heeled from the upright to 90°. The position of the centre of buoyancy is not the most convenient information to use in stability calculations, as it moves vertically as well as horizontally as the angle of heel changes, so buoyancy’s line of action is usually given by its horizontal distance from the centre of the keel, which is known as the ‘KN’ value, The designers provide the ship with tables of KN’ values for the selected typical loaded conditions that can then be used to calculate the ‘GZ’ value for any given height ‘KG’ of the centre of gravity above the keel for 'G’ on the centreline. Righting Lever ‘GZ’ = KN - KGsin@ metres The ‘GZ’ curve with the centre of gravity ‘G’ on the centreline AA ship's stability for a given loaded draft, trim and ‘KG’ is defined by a graph of ‘GZ’ against the angle of heel to starboard or port from the upright to the angle of heel where positive stability is lost, as shown by the adjacent curve. The ‘GZ’ curve is based on the ship being heeled over in still water. 0 +GZ (metres) Angle of heel ‘6" itive stability >|Chapter 4 - The effect of a tow on AHTS vessel stability {G4 Deep sea towage and salvage tug Smit London. A very large traditional type of deep sea tug. The heavily rounded stern above the water is reflected below the water by a deep full after body which gives the vessel considerable buoyancy and enables it 19 work safely ste to in even very heavy seas, The propellers are quite close tothe stern and in fact slightly extend outboard ofthe hull at the ster. Note that although the working deck has a quite low freeboard, this only comprises about half the vessel length and the rest ofthe vessel is built up with this ‘much higher freeboard carried all the way to the bows, Modern large anchor handling tug supply vessel Elisha. The vessel is somewhat longer than Smit bout of similar horsepower. Note the typical ‘open stern and a working deck comprising nearly thirds ofthe vessel length, Below the water at the 2 vessel hull form is deeply cut away to smmodate the propulsion and steering gear and mit the vessel to work with wires and chains ding under and forward of the stern without risking smage to rudders and propeller. potographs by Michael Hancox)(RBA) Poe 1 THEORY M/V KELLY CANDIES: REGISTRATION Offical No 1099759 Port of New Orleans, LA Buider: Bender Shipbulding &e Repair Co Year 2000 Goss ir: 1020 Net C 306 DESCRIPTION Length: Beam: Depth: Bollard Pull (0 Speed: 130 Shor tons Maximum Speed 12KIs DRAFT: Light 12 Maximum 16-0 (CLASSIFICATION: ABS +A) Towing Vessel, “AMS sce Subchapter € (Uninspected) SOLAS Certified ‘CAPACITIES, Total Fuel Oi 218,300 Gallons Lube oi 6.248 Gallons MACHINERY Centre Main Engine: 4 (Fixed Pitch Prop) (1) EMD 20-710-G78 5000 HP @ 900 RPM: Outboard Main Engines: Drives) (2) EMO 16-645-£6 2100 HP @ 900 RPM Drive Units (2) KAMEWA AQUAMASTER 2011 Diesel Generator Set: (2) Detroit Diesel 8V-71N 175 KW @ 1800 RPM, Emergency Generator: Detroit Diese! 4-71N 45 KW @ 1800 RPM ‘Anchor Handling Winch: (1) SMATCO Model 86-DARW-250 Double Drum Reverse ‘Waterfall 412,000 Lb Baredrum Line Pull ELECTRONICS Integrated Control System Portable ing Control Units Electronic Chart Display System Digital CPs Gyrocompass Auto Plt, SPECIAL FEATURES SMATCO 20,000 Ibs. Line Pull Hydraulic Tuggers SMATCO 18° 16'250 ton Stem Roller 'SMATCO Mode! 24 x 14 Pop Up Towing Pins, 4” Tallx 14” Diameter 'SMATCO Model 300T Shark Jaw 36” grasp area, wite chain capable (Open Stern with 50" 42° decked anchor handling area with cargo containing rails ‘Modern North American style anchor handling tug with attached specification and plan. Kelly Candies represents an example of North American practice in offshore tug design. The vessel is unusual in that it ‘has three main propellers, ane central shaft driven unit and twin outboard fully azimuthing units. The owmer is most active in the Gulf of Mexico and the vessel represents a type well-suited to his local market and activities. The impressive funnel casings are more an aspect ofthe owner's preference rather than of practical use. The vessel has proved very capable and efficient. (courtesy of Otto Candies)Chapter 4 ~ The effect ofa tow on AHTS vessel stability [S300 's centre of buoyancy as it heels extends all the way to the stern, but the afterbody has Gepends on its hull shape, which consequently is as a sharp knuckle, or chine, where the vertical hull Senificant as weight distribution in determining the plating abruptly turns into a shallow bottom with ‘sessel's stability. The typical hull characteristics of ‘rise of floor’ above the propellers and rudders and ‘sechor handling and supply vessels are as follows then steeply curves towards the keel to form a vertical skeg between the propellers 1 Ahigh, short fo'e'sle and a long, low afi deck with no sheer. ‘The following diagrams show the changes in an AHTS 2 A waterline length to beam ratio of 4:1, which is _vessel’s immersed hull as it is heeled over from an ower than a more conventional hull upright even keel draft with the stern waterline about & The maximum beam of the fully-loaded waterplane half way between the deck and the chine. The change of buoyancy distribution with increasing angle of heel 1. Angles of heel less than deck immersion at a fixed trim of even keel Upright buoyancy (1 = Buoyancy at 61 angle of heel Excess buoyancy —_Buoyancy/metre length Upright W/L at the stern The hull is at even keel when upright Njeereoen v Transverse sections rotated 01 about the waterplane centreline 4} mm = Excess buoyancy Upright waterline Y We sese The change in the waterplane area mY wm vy = Upright waterplane, [7] = Waterplane at 61 heel, X1X1 = Rolling axis at 61 {Cito = The upright waterplane centreline, Y1¥1 = Trimming axis at 1, IIT = Amidships ‘The full waterplane beam extends to the stern when the vessel is upright, so the trimming axis is, + significant distance aft of amidships. Excess buoyancy is created at the forward end of the hull -2t small angles of heel, so there will be a small decrease in the draft and the hull will trim slightly sstemn down. The rolling axis moves towards the low side of the waterplane(WNBA) Part 1 - THEORY Changes in buoyancy distribution with an AHTS vessel's angle of heel (continued) If the hull continues to heel, then buoyancy is lost from the aft deck along most ofits length as the aft deck edge is immersed, which increases the trimming moment by the stern. The net loss of buoyancy increases the mean draft but, more significantly, the waterplane width aft of amidships is considerably decreased. The righting lever, ‘GZ, increases with both the transverse shift and the rise of the centre of buoyancy that occur as the hull heels. However, the transverse shift of the centre of buoyancy to the low side of the centreline decreases with deck ‘edge immersion, which reduces the waterline beam so, although the rise of the centre of bouyancy continues to increase the ‘GZ’ at angles of heel beyond the angle of deck edge immersion, it does so at an ever-decreasing rate. The next step is to examine how the buoyancy distribution and waterplane area changes with the hull trimming freely at ‘02’ angle of heel. The change of buoyancy distribution with increasing angle of heel 2. Angles of heel less beyond than deck immersion at a fixed trim of even keel [== Buoyancy at 61 angle of heel Upright buoyancy Buoyancy/metre length Excess buoyancy Excess buoyancy Y2 1 Y2 ¥1 Upright waterplane, [7 _]= Waterplane at @2heel, 2X2 = Rolling axis at 62 C/Lo = The upright waterplane centreline, Y1Y1 8 Y2¥2 = Trimming axes at 01 & 02 ‘The loss of waterplane width reduces the range of positive stability and maximum ‘GZ’, whilst the buoyancy loss in the hull’s afterbody creates a stern trimming moment and increases the mean raft. The rolling axis moves back towards the centreline, but the trimming axis moves forward.Chapter 4 - The effect of a tow on AHTS vessel stability (S51) “Changes in buoyancy distribution with an AHTS vessel's angle of heel (continued) The free floating hull heeled over by an external force _A fixed trim hull is a hypothetical concept that is ‘edopts an angle of heel, mean draft and trim at which sometimes used to simplify hullform analysis that is Ge righting moment equals the external heeling inappropriate for anchor handling tugs. A free floating Soment, buoyancy equals the vessel's weight and the hull will simultaneously adjust its angle of heel and Set rimming moment is zero, as shown in the trim in response to an external heeling moment, which Sellowing diagrams is known as the ‘free trim effect’. The change of buoyancy distribution with increasing angle of heel 3. Angles of heel less beyond than deck immersion at a fixed trim of even keel Upright buoyancy [) = Buoyancy at 62* angle of heel (02* is the angle of heel illustrated on the previous page corrected for free trim Excess buoyancy Buovancy/metre length Excess buoyancy --1 ! 1 y Transverse sections rotated 02* about the waterplane centreline 4} MM = Excess buoyancy © ——: = Upright waterline } lili = Buoyancy deficiency Pt GS @& Ys The change in the waterplane area C/Lo x2 C/Lo x ef mm ims v1 Upright waterplane [7] = Waterplane at 62* heel X2X2 = Rolling axis at 02* he upright waterplane centreline 11 & Y2¥2 = Trimming axes at 61 & 62" c/to The hull fixed at even keel will react to the stern trimming moment if it is allowed to float freely. This creates a slight excess of buoyancy at the stern that limits the extent of the final stern trim for this particular upright draft at the stern. The reduced waterplane area is similar to the fixed trim case shown on the previous page, except that now waterplane width is further reduced at the stern but increased by the same amount forward of the break of the fo'c'sle. The shift in the centre of buoyancy at a given draft increases with the sum of the waterplane widths cubed, so the GZ’ value for the freely-trimmed hull will be greater than that for the fixed trim hull. The free trim angle of heel '82*’ is consequently less than fixed trim heel angle ‘02’.(BBY art 7 - THEORY The diagrams on the previous pages show the — immersion. The following diagrams show the import significance of the changes in buoyancy and waterplane ance of maintaining an adequate aft freeboard to avoid width in the after body of an anchor handling tug’s hull an external heeling moment creating an excessive stern in determining the trimming moment that will be down trimming moment, created as the vessel is heeled over beyond aft deck edge The aft draft effect’s on buoyancy at the stern as the free trimming hull is heeled 1 The waterline is close to deck level at the stern Deck immersion occurs at a very small angle of heel and creates a buoyancy deficiency at the stern that increases rapidly with heel angle, which creates a considerable stern down trimming moment. 2 The waterline is midway between the deck level and the chine at the stern Deck immersion occurs at a moderate angle of heel. A slight excess of buoyancy is created at the stern as the hull heels beyond the angle of deck immersion. 3 The waterline is close to the chine at the stern Deck immersion is at a relatively large angle of heel and creates excess buoyancy at the stem that increases with heel angle, which will create a bow down trimming moment. 4} Ml = Excess buoyancy —- = Upright waterline lll = Buoyancy deficiency The ship’s stability is sensitive to trim so it is ship hulls. It may also be necessary to reiterate the ‘KN’ important that ‘GZ’ curves are based on the ‘KN’ values calculation for each selected angle of heel to ensure that for a freely floating hull. This requires analysing the itis based on the ship trimming to an angle that brings submerged hullform for both the longitudinal and the the centres of buoyancy and gravity into vertical ‘ransverse shift in the centre of buoyancy over smaller alignment (the trimming moments can be regarded as incremental increases in angle of heel than may be independent of the ship’s ‘KG because the longitudinal ‘KM’ usually carried out for more conventional merchant isso grea).Chapter 4 ~ The effect of a tow on AHTS vessel stability Design features of AHTS type vessel v build AHTS being prepared for launching. The main design features ofthe underwater part of the ve arly visible. Note how quite broad re stiffens the nozzles but aso provi th the vessel can ride up. Rimorhciatori Rant) id contains tunnel side thrusters, Note also imit to how far a wire or chain leading from the stern roller forward 97(USB Port 1 - THEORY. ‘The IMO recognise the significance of free trim on hulls, like those of anchor handling tugs and issue the following minimum stability criteria for offshore supply vessels of up to 100 metres in length in paragraph 2.4.5 of the Intact Stability, or ‘IS’, Code of 2008, The Code defines offshore supply vessels as ships engaged primarily in the transport of stores, materials and equipment to offshore installations and designed with the accommodation and bridge erections in the vesse’s forward part and an exposed cargo deck in the after part for the handling of cargo at sea. not be less than 0.030 metre-radians. metres. IMO criteria of intact stability for offshore supply vessels up to 100 metres in length These ships are usually very stiff at small heel angles but have a relatively small range of stability 1. The angle of heel ‘8x’ at the maximum ‘GZ’, must not be less than 15°. 2. The area ‘A’ under the curve from 0° to ‘8x’ must not be less than 0.055 + 0.001 (30°-0x°) metre-radians where (30 - 0x) is taken to be zero if ‘Ox’ is greater than 30°. 3. The area ‘B’ under the curve from ‘6x’ (or 30°, if 0x > 30°) to ‘Gf (or 40°, if Bf > 40°) must 4. If ‘8x’ is less than 30°, then the ‘GZ’ value at 30° must not be less than 0.2 metres but, if ‘ex’ is equal to or greater than 30°, then the maximum ‘GZ’ value must not be less than 0.2 5. The minimum upright ‘GM’ value must not be less than 0.15 metres 6. The stern freeboard must not be less than 0.5% of the vessel's length. Stability is compromised by flooding at angles of heel beyond 0. 50° 57.3" 60° heel The maximum ‘GZ’ of an offshore supply vessel is allowed to occur at a much smaller angle of heel than normal, providing that the positive dynamic stability up to this angle of heel (ie. area ‘A’ under the ‘GZ! curve) is greater than for a cargo ship. This requires a large upright ‘GM’ than in combination with the large maximum beam that extends to the stern. The IMO IS Code also makes following demands: 1. Deck cargo ‘KG values used in stability calculations must be realistic estimates of actual heights of the stows’ centres of gravity and not simply the deck height 2. Allowance must be made for the weight of water that can be trapped within any deck stow. Deck cargoes of pipe sections are particularly likely to trap water. 3. Deck cargo should preferably be unloaded before discharging internal hull cargo tanks. 4. The aft deck must be kept weathertight, so all essential openings, such as funnel intakes, must not be in located on the aft deck, as it is vulnerable to flooding due to the free trim effect. It should be appreciated that these stability criteria are minimum requirements that cover a wide range of vessels and, as such, they may be insufficient for any one individual vessel. Although most anchor handling tugs are built to also work as supply vessels, the extra dangers involved in towing operations are not considered by the above IMO stability requirements, and in particular, the minimum required stern freeboard, in my opinion, is woefully inadequate for vessels engaged in anchor handling,Chapter 4 = The effect of a tow on AHTS vessel stability (99) All tugs are small vessels with very high engine power for their size and a small length to beam ratio that is sppically less than 4 to 1. The short length makes a tug very manoeuvrable and capable of being tured around S confined spaces whilst the large beam for the tug’s fength increases its stability but also provides sufficient space in the hull for the powerful engines. One danger common to all tugs is known as ‘girting’ (sometimes spelt as ‘girding’) in which the tug is swung beam onto the towline by an excessively high tow tension. In ‘Srting incidents, the tow takes control of the tug rather shan the other way around with the result that the tug «ean be towed sideways, during which there is a danger of it capsizing, However, there are some very important differences between a conventional harbour tug being fed and girting an anchor handing tug, which are illustrated in the diagrams below. Girting presents a greater tisk of capsize to an anchor handler than it does to a conventional harbour tug and this danger is further increased by the free trim effect due to the anchor handler’s long low aft deck without ster sheer and a relatively short high fo'csle. The first step in determining the effect of the tow tension on the anchor handler’s range of positive stability is to calculate its loaded condition with the tow leading dead astern. A conventional harbour tug The tow acts upwards on the amidships region of the tug The tow ten: Comparing how the towing force acts on a harbour tug to on an anchor handler The tow tension’s lateral component, ‘THL’, forms a capsizing couple with the stern thrust ‘R’ that resists the sideways movement of both the anchor handler and the harbour tug. Wn’ vertical component, ‘TV’, creates a stern down trimming moment on the anchor handling tug whereas it has no significant trimming effect on the conventional harbour tug. ‘An anchor handling tug ‘An upward component of tension ‘T’ is equivalent to discharging a weight from the point at which the tension acts, so it creates a righting moment if it acts on a point on the low side of the tug. The towiine of a conventional tug passes through a lead on either a radial arm or track, which allows the tension to act on the low side and so limits the tow's, heeling moment. The downward component of the tow tension acts on the anchor handler in the opposite way and so increases the heeling moment when the tow leads to one side of right astern.(HOO) Part 1 - THEORY Hull features AA typical modem anchor handling vessel in drydock looking forward from the ster below the stern roller. The deeply cut away 's obvious as i the distance the propellers and rudders are positioned well forward of the stern. Note how the full depth of hus! = mm achieved until the hull fils out forward ofthe propulsion units. The vessel has the typical spade rudder and shrouded prope! nozzles). The propellers are ofthe controllable pitch type. (courtesy RimorchiatoriRiunti) Hull features A close up view of the stern of large modern anchor handling tug. The stern roller and whalebacks provide a smooth pat ‘boarding seas to inundate the whole deck. Note how the stern under the roller cuts awey forwards giving minimal immersed ha the aft body of the vessel fils out forward of the propulsion units (se top photograph on page 97). (courtesy RimorhiatoriRiunit)Chapter 4 - The effect of a tow on AHTS vessel stability (HO) An anchor handler’s mean draft, trim and upright ‘GM’ any other weight to the stern of the vessel. However, will all change with the tow’s tension acting on the there is also a small stern trimming moment due to the vessel's ster. Most of this is due to the tow tension’s tow tension’s horizontal component (often referred to vertical component, which is the weight of the tow as the bollard pull) forming a couple with the ahead supported by the tug, so its effect on the mean draft, thrust from the tug’s main propellers trim and ‘GM’ is calculated the same way as for adding, Calculating an anchor handler's loaded condition with the tow leading dead astern The ‘tonnes per centimetre change of draft, or ‘TPC’ and the tonne-metres per centimetre change of trim, or MCTC:, over the range of the ship's operating mean drafts are given in the hydrostatic data. Calculating the change in mean draft and ‘KG’ ‘AT’ = Tug’s free running displacement with no tow —_ tonnes ‘Tv’ = The tow tension’s vertical pull tonnes ‘do’ = Tug’s free running mean draft metres ‘Oh’ = Height of stern roller’s top above ‘Go’ metres We Towing mean draft ‘dv" = ‘do’ + 59 7pc@ao metres Alternatively, the draft ‘d1' will be given by the tug’s hydrostatic data as the mean draft for a displacement of ‘Ar’ + ‘Tv’ tonnes bh x TV Towing KG1 Keo + = metres + WV ‘Adding the tow weight TV’ shifts the tug’s centre of gravity from ‘Go’ to'G1" Calculating the change in trim ‘TH’ = Tow tension’s horizontal pull tonnes ‘Cof F’ = position of the centre of floatation @ the towing mean draft ‘d1’ s Distance from the centre of the stern roller to the ‘C of F” metres ‘LCF’ = Distance from the aft perpendicular to the ‘C of F’ metres w Height of stern roller’s top above the main propeller bosses metres The vessel trims about the C of F TH = Tsing W = Teosp Trimming moment due to the tow = (‘Tv x ‘S) + (‘TH’ x ‘h’) tonne-metres So, change of trim due to the tow = {TW x S) + (TH _x ‘h) metres 100 TPC @ do The immersed hullform and consequently the height of the metacentre above the keel ‘KM’ is very sensitive to the trim, so the ‘KM’ value taken from the ship's hydrostatic data and used to calculate the towing ‘GM’ should be appropriate for the trim in the towing condition Towing GM = KM @‘d1’ and the towing trim - KG1 metres