Int’l Conf.

on Advanced Mechatronics, Intelligent Manufacture, and Industrial Automation 2015 (ICAMIMIA 2015)
ŔŶųŢţŢźŢĭġŊůťŰůŦŴŪŢĭġŰůġŐŤŵŰţŦųġIJĶĮIJĸĭġijıIJĶġ

Modeling and Control of Ballast System to

Improve Stability of Catamaran Boat
Adi Kurniawan, Hardianto, Eddy Setyo Koenhardono, Indra Ranu Kusuma
Department of Marine Engineering
Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember
Surabaya, Indonesia
adi.kurniawan@ne.its.ac.id

Abstract— Ballast system is a system which works to keep the
ship to be stable. The conventional ballast system is operated
manually by human operator. In this paper, an automatic control
for ballast system for catamaran boat is proposed. The scheme of
the ballast system is designed and modeled mathematically. The
controller used in this paper is PID controller which the
parameters are determined based on the mathematical model of
the ballast system and using Ziegler-Nichols method. The
simulation results shows that the proposed system have a good
results in the accuracy and speed response of the ballast system
to stabilize the ship.
Keywords— ballast system; ship stability; catamaran boat; PID
controller
I. INTRODUCTION
Automation technology is increasingly being used in
various fields, including in the shipbuilding industry. Some
automation technology has been implemented in the ship. One
of the important systems in the ship is ballast system. In
Indonesia, automatic ballast control systems have not been
implemented yet, especially in catamaran boat. Catamaran
boat has two hulls which resulting deficient maneuver than
single hull ship, because the vessel stability is reduced,
especially when the load is high [1]. Moreover, multihull ship
such as catamaran and trimaran boat has a probability to be
capsized when exposed to strong winds, especially when the
vessel is doing the maneuver [2], [3]. Therefore, an advanced
ballast system has to be implemented in catamaran boat to
improve its stability.
The good ballast systems must be able to respond the ship
movement as quick as possible. This is essential for the safety
and comfort of the crew. The safety and comfort of the crew is
one of the criteria that has to be fulfilled by a ship.
Some researches has been done to design an automatic
ballast control system for the ship. An anti heeling application
for ballast system for supply vessel has been built in [4]. The
system uses inclinometer sensor and solenoid valve. The
automatic ballast control system is developed and analyzed in
[5]. The system also developed for supply vessel.
In this paper, the automatic ballast control system is
developed for catamaran boat. The initial step to determine the
components and the arrangement of the system. Then, to build
a proper control, the mathematic model of the system
incatamaran boat has to be derived. Then, the coefficient of
the controller can be calculated properly to produce a good
control effect. The controller that used in this research is a
conventional PID controller. The components of ballast
system that being controlled are pumps and valves. The pump
itself consist of electric motor. The electric motor is used
induction motor because it is easy to control by using power
electronic devices [6]. The contents of this paper consist of
introduction, the basic theory of stability of the ship, design of
ballast control system, discussion and conclusion.
II. STABILITY OF THE SHIP
Stability is related to the movement of the vessel to return
to its original position. Stability is assumed as the ability of
the ship to return to vertically upright position when the ship is
experienced a tilt. The volume of the vessel that immersed in
the water is not affected by this movement. The tilt of the ship
on this condition is known as equivolumetric inclinations.
All of vessels dimension should fulfill IMO standard,
including catamaran boat. There are some limitations that
should be filled in designing catamaran boat. Those limitations
are:
 The length of arm dynamic stability at 30° should be
longer than 0.055 m rad
 The length of arm dynamic stability at 40° should be
longer than 0.090 m rad
 The length of arm static stability at 30° should be longer
than 0.2 m rad
 The maximum length of the arm must be at 30°
 The distance of MG0 at single deck vessel should be longer
than 0.35 m
Although the vessel already fulfill the requirement above,
the additional tool to improve ship stability is required. Ballast
system is the tool that can improve the vessel stability.
Ballast system is one of service system in the ship that
carries and filled in by ballast water. Ballast system also used
to adjust the tilt degree and stability of the ship in order to
avoid shaky, as a result of the change of load or disturbance
caused by sea wave. There are some principles that should be
fulfilled when designing a ballast system, which are:
 Calculating the total capacity of all ballast tanks
 Calculating the time to fill in and clear out the ballast tank
(in hours)

202
Int’l Conf. on Advanced Mechatronics, Intelligent Manufacture, and Industrial Automation 2015 (ICAMIMIA 2015)
ŔŶųŢţŢźŢĭġŊůťŰůŦŴŪŢĭġŰůġŐŤŵŰţŦųġIJĶĮIJĸĭġijıIJĶġ

 Calculating the capacity of the pumps
 Determining water flow in the pipes
 Determining the diameter of the main pipeline
 Determining the diameter of branch pipeline
 Calculating the total head
For the next step, each component in the system must be
mathematically modeled. The mathematical model is
determined by analyzed dynamic model of the components
and determining the differential equation based on those
model. Then, the dynamic equation is transformed into
frequency base equation through Laplace transformation. The
mathematical model of the ballast control system is shown in
Fig. 3.

III. DESIGN OF BALLAST CONTROL SYSTEM

The scheme diagram of the ballast system is shown in
Fig.1. The system consists of two ballast tanks, four solenoid
valves, and a pump.

Figure 3 Mathematical Block Diagram of Ballast Control

System

Before calculating the constant of the controller, all of the

constant on each component should be determined. The value
of constant on each component in this research is based on the
value on [7]. The mathematical model with the value is shown
Figure 1 Scheme of Ballast System in Fig. 4.

When the ship is experienced a tilt, the inclinometer sensor

will responds and measures how much the tilt angle, and the
signal will be delivered to the control unit. In the control unit,
the measured angle is compared with the reference angle. If
the difference between reference and measured angle is
positive, the ship is tilted to the left (portside), and the water in
the ballast tank shall be moved from the left to right to
balancing the vessel. The opposite occurs when the difference
between reference and measured angle is negative.
When the ship is doing a maneuver to turn left, the ship
will experience a tilt to right, and the pump will be turned on, Figure 4 Mathematical Block Diagram of Ballast Control
then the 1st and 4th valve will automatically open, while the 2nd System with Coefficient Value
and 3rd valve will automatically close. Then, the water in the
2nd ballast tank will be moved to the 1st ballast tank until the The controller used in this research is PID controller. The
vessel is stable. The stability rate is based on the reference proper coefficient parameters of the controller are determined
angle. If the maneuver is in opposite direction, the valve that by using Ziegler-Nichols method. At first, the mathematical
will be opened is the 2nd and the 3rd, while the 1st and the 4th model of the system is coupled with proportional controller
will be closed. only. The mathematical model in Fig.4 must be simplified.
In order to design a proper automatic control for ballast The simplified block diagram with proportional controller is
system, the system should be modeled in block diagram. The shown in Fig. 5.
block diagram of the ballast system equipped with the control
unit is shown in Fig. 2.

Figure 2 Block Diagram of Ballast Control System Figure 5 Simplified Block Diagram of Ballast Control System

203
Int’l Conf. on Advanced Mechatronics, Intelligent Manufacture, and Industrial Automation 2015 (ICAMIMIA 2015)
ŔŶųŢţŢźŢĭġŊůťŰůŦŴŪŢĭġŰůġŐŤŵŰţŦųġIJĶĮIJĸĭġijıIJĶġ
The coefficient of proportional controller is tuned. At first,
the coefficient is set to zero. Then, the coefficient is raised up
until the system shows an oscillated graphic. The coefficient
of proportional controller that resulting oscillate is called as
Ultimate Proportional Band (PBU, while the oscillation period
is called Ultimate Period (Pu). By doing simulation in
computer software, the value of PBU is 25.16, while the PU is
12.08. Then, the coefficient of proportional controller (KP),
integral controller (Ki) and derivative controller (Kd) is
calculated by using Ziegler-Nichols rules. The calculation of
PID controller coefficient is as follow:
Kp = 0.6 x PBU (1)
Kp = 0.6 x 25.16 = 15.1
Ki = 2 x Kp / PU
Ki = 2 x 15.1 / 12.08 = 2.5
Kd = 0.125 x Pu x Kp
Kd = 0.125 x 12.08 x 15.1 = 22.81
Based as calculation above, the transfer function of PID
controller is
Ki
G c(S) Kp   Kd s
s Ballast system is one of most important component in a
2,5
G c(S) 15,1   22,81s
s in the system is a PID controller that designed using Ziegler-
IV. DISCUSSION
In order to validate the developed model, a test based on
computer simulation has been done. The model of the system
in computer simulation program is shown in Fig. 6.
Figure 6 Simulation Model
The model consist of the simplified block diagram of the
system paired with PID controller that coefficient has been
calculated in section 3. The system is tested with unit step
signal. The simulation time is 200 seconds. The result of the
simulation is shown in Fig. 7.
Fig. 7 is showing the transient respond of the vessel.
Based on the result, the designed ballast control has a good
accuracy to stabilize the ship, proved by the value in y-axes of
the respond which stable in 1. The value of y-axes represents
the angle of the ship. Value 1 means that the ship is in vertical
upright position. The time needed to stabilize the ship is
around 120 seconds or two minutes, which is not too fast or
too slow. If the time needed to stabilize is too fast, it can cause
discomfort to the passengers and crews because the ship is
moving too fast.
(2)
(3)
Figure 7 Transient Response of Ship Stability
V. CONCLUSION
(4)
vessel that has role to stabilize the vessel. An automatic ballast
system has been designed in this research. The controller used
(5)
Nichols method. The result of the simulation using computer
software shows that the designed system can stabilize system
by returning the vessel to vertical upright position. The time
needed to stabilize the vessel is 120 seconds or 2 minutes
which is fast enough.
VI. REFERENCES
[1] Agung Setiono, Study Perencanaan Katamaran Untuk Kapal
Wisata di Pasir Putih, Situbondo. Surabaya, Indonesia: Institut
Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, 2005.
[2] A.G. Blyth, "An ISO Standart for Stability And Bouyancy of
Small Craft," International Journal Of Small Craft Technology,
vol. 147, 2005.
[3] Eddy S. Koenhardono, Eko B. Djatmiko, Adi Soeprijanto,
Mohammad I. Irawan, "Neural Network-Based Engine Properller
Matching (NNEPM) for Trimaran Patrol Ship," Applied
Mechanics and Materials, vol. 493, pp. 388-394, 2014.
[4] Khoiruddin, The Technical Analysis of the Anti Heeling
Application to The Ballast System By means of Inclinometer
Sensor and Solenoid Valve For The Supply Vessel. Surabaya,
Indonesia: Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, 2005.
[5] Gede Sutiada, Analisa Teknik Kontrol Otomatis Sistem Ballast
Untuk Stabilitas Kapal Pada Supply Vessel. Surabaya, Indonesia:
Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, 2006.
[6] Adi Kurniawan, Anisa Harumwidiah, "Strategi Kendali
Kecepatan Motor Induksi Menggunakan PWM Inverter Berbasis
Jaringan Saraf Tiruan," Transmisi, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 83-88,
2015.
[7] Hardianto, Simulasi Kontrol Sistem Ballast Secara Otomatis
pada Kapal Katamaran. Surabaya, Indonesia: Institut Teknologi
Sepuluh Nopember, 2007.
204