CONSTANTA MARITIME UNIVERSITY MARINE AUXILIARY MACHINERY Draft Edition Naval Architect and Marine Engineer IORDAN NOVAC Ph.D. CONSTANTA 2013This page intentionally left blankCHAPTER 1 WATER FLOW, FOILS AND WAVES. SUMMARY This chapter looks at the basic physical properties of fluid flow that create the dynamic forces involved in a ship's motion, propulsion and steering. It also describes some basic properties of water waves and their propagation, We start by considering how hydrostatic pressure, acting equally in all directions for a particular depth of water, is converted into dynamic pressure when water flows. Bernoulli's prineiple for water flow and how it effects the pressure around an obstacle is deseribed. ‘The water properties of surface tension and viscosity are examined with regard to their effect upon water flow and the transition from laminar to turbulent flow is explained. ‘The effect of a flow separating asymmetrically around a foil-shaped obstacle is examined and the ‘generation of lift and drag forces is described. This is the basis for understanding the action of propellers and rudders. ‘Water waves are described and relationships between wave speed, length and period are derived. The effect of water depth on wave speed, direction and behaviour are examined and the chapter ends with a brief description of how they spread out from their source. (The wave behaviour described here is directly relevant to both the resistance of driving a ship through the water and to the motion of ships in heavy seas) CONTENTS Static and dynamic pressure of water 2 Bernoulli's principle 3 ‘The Bernoulli water flow around a ship's hull 4 ‘The forces that act between molecules 5 Surface Tension 5 Viscosity, and laminar or turbulent fluid flow 7 ‘The flow around a foil " Definitions of foil measurements 14 ‘The factors effecting the performance of a foil 14 ‘The end effect of flow around a foil 15 Foil aspect ratio, attack angle and stall angle 16 Water flow around a foi 7 ‘Compressibility and density 7 Cavitation 7 Water waves 18 Phase velocity of deep water waves 18 ‘The shape of the sea surface in deep water 20 ‘The energy of a deep water wave 21 Phase velocity of shallow water waves 2 ‘The effects of shallow water and currents on waves 25 ‘The formation of and make up of real sea conditions 26 ‘Wave prediction curves 2B ‘Wave propagation 30 Wave group velocity 31 ‘The oblique wave velocity 33STATIC AND DYNAMIC PRESSURE OF WATER Anyone who has played around swimming under water in a swimming pool will have felt an increase {in pressure as they have swum down towards the bottom of the pool. The pressure (i.e. the weight of ‘water pressing down on each square metre) increases in direct proportion to the depth of water as, shown below. ATI A. THE BLUE DOTTED LINES SHOW A VERTICAL COLUMN OF WATER WITH A MASS OF 'm! kg AND A CROSS-SECTIONAL AREA OF 1 mi WEIGHT OF WATER COLUMN = mg N ‘SO PRESSURE = mg Nim? WHERE im! = MASS OF WATER IN kg AND 9’ = 9.81m/s (THE ACCELERATION DUE TO GRAVITY) BUT ‘m' = tph kg WHERE p' = DENSITY OF WATER kg/m? AND 'h! = WATER DEPTH, m PRESSURE = pgh N/m ‘The pressure under a depth of water is measure of the potential energy per unit volume, or the ‘energy density’ of water at that depth. If we have water stored in a large tank, which then develops a very small hole in the bottom of it, the static pressure forces out a jet of water and the potential energy is, converted to kinetic energy in the flowing water. The static pressure at the bottom of the tank acts equally in all directions but the jet will only exert pressure in the direction ofits flow, which is only fully experienced by bringing the flow completely to a stop and so is called the ‘stagnation pressure, THE DY! PRESSURE OF A WATI |APING FROM AT) MASS 'm’ OF WATER ESCAPES THROUGH A SMALL HOLE IN THE TANK AS A JET OF VELOCITY POTENTIAL ENERGY @ DEPTH ’h’ KINETIC ENERGY IN JET so. mgh = dmv? ™ 21m so Bon =i 2v so poh = Sov) WHERE ‘p'IS THE DENSITY OF WATER (kg /m*) THE PRESSURE OF THE JET IS ONLY FULLY EXERTED IN THE PLANE PERPENDICULAR TO THE FLOW AND 1S KNOWN AS. THE ‘STAGNATION PRESSURE" VOLUME "V" & VELOCITY 'V AT ANY INSTANT, THE STATIC PRESSURE pgh = tp V* THE JET'S STAGNATION PRESSUREBERNOULLI'S PRINCIPLE The conversion of potential energy to kinetic energy in the flow of fluids was first examined by the 18" Century Swiss scientist Daniel Bernoulli. Ifa flow is frictionless, the energy per cubic metre within a steady flow is conserved and consequently Bernoulli stated that, in such a flow, the sum of stagnation and static pressures taken at any point along the flow is also constant. Friction in fluid flow is known as ‘viscous friction’ and cannot be ignored in either pumping fluids or driving machines ‘through them (such as ships through water or aircraft through the atmosphere). However, Bernoulli's principle explains why there is a drop in the pressure acting perpendicular to a flow when its linear velocity is accelerated by passing the flow through a reduced sectional area. Bemoulli only considered the steady flow conditions of liquids, which are effectively incompressible and so of constant density. The leaking tank, shown on the previous page, is not a true steady flow situation, as the pressure of the jet reduces with the falling water level in the tank. If, though, the hole is very small, compared to the tank's surface area, it approximates to a steady flow over short periods of time and the very small downward velocity of the water inside the tank can be ignored. A more complete picture of Bemoullis principle is given by considering the way in which a flow meter works. ‘APPLYING BERNOULLI'S PRINCIPLE TO A LIQUID FLOW METER A CONSTRICTED LENGTH OF KNOWN CROSS SECTIONAL AREA ‘A? IS INSERTED INTO THE PIPE, WHICH CAUSES THE FLOW VELOCITY TO ACCELERATE FROM 'V1' TO ‘Vz. THE RESULTING DROP OF STATIC HEAD 'h'IS MEASURED TO CALCULATE THE VOLUMETRIC FLOW RATE ALONG PIPE BY BERNOULLI PRINCIPLE, pahi + tpi? = pghz + tps? ‘h'& Ma ARE THE STATIC HEADS FOR THE LIQUID PASSING THROUGH ‘Ar’ AND ‘' RESPECTIVELY 1 so pa(ht - hz) = >p( V2? - V4?) AS THE LIQUID IS INCOMPRESSIBLE, THE VOLUMETRIC FLOW RATE = A1Vi = A2V2 AL so ne ie Me no consequeny, gan = dv(25-1) so w= /—29ah__ (ar raa? = 1) 2gah ‘AND CONSEQUENTLY, THE VOLUMETRIC FLOW RATE = As [-—reT A constriction in a flow is known as a ‘venturi’ and the drop in static pressure that it causes is called the ‘venturi effect’ and is also applicable to gases provided that changes in density with changing pressure are allowed for. The venturi effect is used in a great variety of devices, often to mix two or ‘three fluids together. Foam making fire hose nozzles have a venturi to draw the liquid foam ingredient ‘and air into the stream of water from a normal fire hose to produce foam for fighting oil-based fires.‘The Bernoulli water flow around a ship's hul We can apply Bernoulli's principle to water flowing past a ship, whether it is moving through still water or at anchor in a current, as in either situation the ship's underwater hullform constricts the flow. THE BERNOULLI PRESSURE DISTRIBUTION OF WATER FLOW AROUND A HULL —> STREAMLINES, SHOWING WATER FLOW AROUND THE HULL @ STAGNATION POINTS WHERE FLOW VELOCITY IS ZERO HIGH PRESSURE —> HIGH PRESSURE | STREAMLINES CONVERGE, | STREAMLINES DIVERGE, | FLOW ACCELERATING & | FLOW DECELERATING & | | PRESSURE DEGREASING | PRESSURE INCREASING | V= FLOW VELocITY| SL THE RESTRICTION STARTS AT THE BOW AND SLOWS DOWN THE WATER FLOW, DEPENDING UPON THE ANGLE AT WHICH IT STRIKES THE HULL PLATING, WHICH CAUSES THE STATIC PRESSURE TO RISE. THE STAGNATION POINTS ARE WHERE THE FLOW HAS BEEN COMPLETELY STOPPED AND SO EXPERIENCE THE FULL FORCE OF THE WATER FLOW LE THESTAGNATION PRESSURE = ZpV? WHERE'p' = WATER DENSITY THE RISE IN PRESSURE AT THE BOW IS SUFFICIENT TO SQUEEZE AND ACCELERATE THE WATER ALONG THE SHIP'S SIDE. THE PRESSURE RISES AGAIN AS THE STREAMLINES DIVERGE AGAIN TOWARDS THE STERN. IF THERE WAS NO FRICTION BETWEEN THE WATER FLOW AND THE SHIP'S HULL, THEN THE HIGH PRESSURE EXPERIENCED AT THE BOW OF THE SHIP WHERE THE FLOW ‘SEPARATES WOULD BE EQUAL TO THE HIGH PRESSURE AT THE STERN WHERE IT RECOMBINES. THE CHANGES IN STATIC PRESSURE PRODUCE CORRESPONDING CHANGES IN THE WATERLINE PROFILE AROUND THE SHIP. Bemoulli’s principle is, of course, a simplification of reality because we cannot ignore the effects of friction acting against the motion ofthe hull through water. Although the pressure distribution predicted by Bemoullis principle is broadly true, frictional resistance to the hull's forward motion causes the high pressure recovered at the stern (winich assists the motion) to be less than the high pressure at the bow (which is resisting the motion). The full effects of fuid friction are quite complex ‘and we will be looking at them in more detail later on in this chapter and in chapter 2. The Bernoulli pressure differential along the hull will increase with the ship's speed through the water and is important in understanding some important aspects of the behaviour of the bull. When a ship is ‘moving relatively fast in close proximity to another vessel or a seabed restriction (such as a shoal), the resulting pattern of pressure and waterline distortion will significantly affect the vessel's steering, As a ship moves into more restricted and shallow water, the venturi effect that develops between the bottom of the hull and the seabed amplifies the Bemoulli pressure distribution. Increasing acceleration of the flow under and around the midships region of the hull causes a significant depression of the waterline and so the vessel bodily ‘sinks’ closer to the seabed. Al these interaction phenomena can and have contributed to collisions and groundings and will be considered in more detail in chapter 6,‘The Bernoulli water flow around a ship's hull (cont.) ‘The Bernoulli pressure differential is also important in that it causes the ship's motion to generate a pattern of water waves that moves along at the same speed as the ship. Again, this will be discussed ‘more fully in the next chapter but suffice to say for the moment the physical properties of the water and the length of the wave determine the speed at which waves can travel across the water surface. This puts an effective limit on the maximum speed at which a displacement hull can move through the water. (A ‘displacement hull’ is one in which the vessel's weight is totally supported by the weight of displaced water as described by Archimedes' principle. There is no additional support provided by dynamic lift acting on the ship's bottom and generated by the ship's speed) ‘The generation of the wave pattern also takes up energy, which the ship's motion must provide so it is another form of resistance. The flow of water around the ship's hull gives rise to the vessel suffering resistance from two different physical phenomena, |) Frictional resistance between the water and the hull, 2) Wave making resistance due to creation of a wave pattern 3) _ Resistance due to environmental forces, such as waves and wind generated by the weather. ‘These different causes of resistance depend upon physical properties of the hullform and water in different ways so they are considered separately. ‘THE FORCES THAT ACT BETWEEN MOLECULES ‘Though this may seem strange that the movement of a 250,000 T deadweight tanker is impeded by the accumulated effect of minuscule forces, frictional resistance is very much dependant upon the Forces that act at a molecular level. There are forees of attraction acting between water molecules themselves and between the water molecules and the molecules of any solid surface that is passing through the liquid, Both of these intermolecular forces are important to understanding frictional resistance. ‘Surface Tension We can start by considering the simple phenomenon of ‘Surface Tension’, which allows many very small animals to literally ‘walk on water. This causes a'skin’ to form on the surface of a body of water that is strong enough to support the weight of insects, such as water boatman. In fact, it doesnt require ‘any special talent on the part of the insects. They have such a large surface area for their body weight that they can no more fall through the surface tension skin into the underlying body of water than we can fall through the floor that we are standing on. Surface tension is measured as the force that exists across a unit length of liquid surface. (Clean water has a surface tension of 75 micro-Newtons / millimetres or 7.5 x 10 Newtons / metre.) SU eae TENSION 4 OD a jase ee orca ea ae se ee eee oe eer ee ea ee eee eee ue pees @ suerscewouscuss THIS CREATES A SKIN EFECT THAT IS STRONG © wrerior movecutes Be oeres errand meester See rae SA, se irre TonesSurface Tension (cont,) Surface tension acts towards pulling a water / air interface into a shape with the smallest possible area for its volume, hence water droplets and air bubbles within water are both spherical. If we can somehow ‘tear the water surface apart, and insert additional surface area, then we are doing work against surface tension and the energy expended would increase with the additional surface area. In effect, we are spreading the body of water further out, which is what most people do when they spread out a spill of water with a mop. The following diagram shows a rather artificial example of this in which the additional surface area is rectangular in shape to make the sums easy. ‘SURFACE T! A SPREADING FORCE ‘Fr’ MOVING APART AT "V’ m/s IS CREATING ADDITIONAL SURFACE AREA THE TOTAL FORCE ' Fr DUE TO SURFACE TENSION THAT MUST OVERCOME IS Fr= Lx7.5x 107 Newtons ‘THIS FORCE HAS BEEN MOVED THROUGH THE WIDTH 'B! OF THEADDITIONAL SURFACE AREA, SO ‘THE WORK DONE IS GIVEN BY: WORK DONE = Ft x B Joules =LxBx75x107 Joules THE POWER REQUIRED TO DO THIS IS EQUAL TO THE WORK DONE PER SECOND. IE. POWER = WORK DONExSPEED Watts =VxLx 75x10? — Watts BUTVx L = RATE AT WHICH THE SURFACE "VIS THE RATE AT WHICH 'B' IS INCREASING. AREA IS INCREASING ‘THE POWER REQUIRED TO CREATE ADDITIONAL WATERIAIR SURFACE AREA IS GIVEN AS;- POWER = 7.5x 10® x RATE OF INCREASE IN SURFACE AREA (m A SHIP ONLY CREATES ADDITIONAL SURFACE AREA AT A SIGNIFICANT RATE WHEN IT IS ‘SLAMMING INTO HEAVY HEAD SEAS AND PRODUCING LARGE QUANTITIES OF SPRAY. ‘A ship moving through still water experiences a very small opposing force on the bow due to surface tension as it 'unzips the water's surface but this is equalled by the forward push against the stern as the \water surface ‘zips’ back up with the passing of the ship. However, surface tension is significant when a ship is steaming against heavy head seas and creating spray. In these situations, the water surface is not merely being separated, it is being smashed up into very tiny fragments and then re-constituted as millions of spray droplets. Energy is taken out of the ship's motion both to lift the weight of spray ‘water up into the air and also to form the greatly increased surface area of the water when itis fragmented into droplets of only about one millimetre in diameter. This increases the surface area of the water affected by about one thousand-fold and so can produce a considerable force to oppose the ship's motion. It is not surprising that a ship seems to shudder and abruptly slow down when it runs into a wave that breaks up into heavy spray. ‘Surface tension in a liquid is due to the liquid’s molecules being attracted to each other but the attraction between the liquid and solid molecules is also significant. Water usually ‘wets' solid surfaces that it comes in contact with because there is a high attraction between the water and steel molecules,‘Viscosity, and laminar or turbulent fluid flow If we pull an almost totally immersed plank of wood through the water, the attraction between water molecules and those of the plank causes the innermost water molecules to attach themselves to the plank. The attached molecules exert a drag on adjacent molecules outboard of them due to the attractive forces between the water molecules themselves. This results in the formation of layers of ‘water moving past the plank at differing speeds. The innermost layer is stationary, relative to the plank and as we move outboard the layers slip astern of the plank with increasing velocity until we reach undisturbed water, which is passing astern atthe plank’s speed through the water. This situation is known as laminar flow’ and it occurs because attractive forces act between the water molecules to transfer energy from the plank’s motion to the surrounding water. This, in tur, creates a resistance to solid bodies moving through water or water flowing past solid surfaces (such as pipe flows ete). The phenomenon of this fluid friction is known as ‘viscosity’. A very viscous fluid is one in which the intermolecular attractive forces are high and consequently the resistance to flow is considerable (e.g treacle or molten tar). Viscosity in a fluid flow is related to the velocity gradient within the fluid, the area of contact and the frictional force as shown in the following diagram. TWO PARALLEL IDENTICAL PLATES OF AREA ‘A’ ARE SEPARATED BY THE DISTANCE 'S' WITHA FLUID BETWEEN THEM. THE TOP PLATE IS MOVED AT VELOCITY 'V' RELATIVE TO THE BOTTOM PLATE, SO A VELOCITY GRADIENT IS SET UP AS THE LAYERS' OF INTERVENING FLUID SLIDE OVER EACH OTHER. THE MOTION BETWEEN THE PLATES IS OPPOSED BY FRICTIONAL FORCE F" Aru'somame wscosry 1 soernen as macnano SEEABSTRESS gg. EIA $0, THE FRICTIONAL FORGE 'F* = AY Strictly speaking, viscosity and the level of resistance are due to the interaction of the fluid with the solid surface as well as the forces acting between the molecules within the fluid itself. If water behaved like mercury when in contact with steel plating, the frictional resistance to moving a ship through water would be very low indeed. Certain plastic coatings, such as PTFE and Polyethylene repel water, but it is impractical to maintain such anti-wetting coatings on the underwater areas of a seagoing vessel. Roughness of the solid surface is also very important, as a rough surface will drag ‘more water along with it than a smooth one. The change from riveted hulls to all welded construction has considerably reduced roughness but both corrosion and marine growth can significantly increase resistance. ‘The laminar flow situation is not stable because, as the layers of water slide past each other their relative velocities continue to change as the inner layers continue to slow down the layers immediately outboard of them. The mass of innermost water that is either moving along with the plank or nearly 50 will tend to increase further along the plank’s length and create low pressure astern of it. Ifthe plank is long enough or moving sufficiently fast this will eventually lead to the outer layers tumbling inwards in series of swirls to fil the voids and the flow is then said to have become ‘turbulent’.vi 1d Jamin; ‘When a flow tums turbulent, the transfer of frictional energy is no longer via viscous forces between orderly layers of fluid moving at different velocities. There is now a direct exchange of kinetic energy between faster molecules colliding with slower ones as they move randomly within the region of disturbed fluid close to the plank. Resistance downstream of the transition from laminar to turbulent flow increases considerably to vary approximately with the square of the average flow velocity. The region of disturbed fluid flowing around a solid obstacle is known as the ‘boundary layer' where Bemoulli’s law does not apply as energy is being dissipated through friction and heat in both laminar and turbulent flow conditions within the layer. The boundary layer can be considered as a thickening of the obstruction's dimensions with Bemoulli flow conditions existing beyond the boundary layer but not within it, The streamlines around the downstream end of the obstruction do not fully converge so recovery pressure is reduced and resistance to the flow consequently increases. This is known as form drag’ and is considered farther in chapter 2. The remnant of the boundary layer trails astem of the ship as a band of disturbed water that is known as the ‘wake’. VISCOUS FLOW OF WATER AROUND A PARTLY IMMERSED PLANK THE CHANGING OF THE WATER VELOCITY PROFILE AS THE FLOW PROGRESSES DOWNSTREAM —>| = WATER FLOW VELOCITY RELATIVE TO THE PLANK FRICTIONAL RESISTANCE VARIES WITH FLOW VELOCITY WITHIN THE REGION OF THE ORDERLY LAYERS OF LAMINAR FLOW. RESISTANCE VARIES WITH THE ‘SQUARE OF THE FLOW VELOCITY AFTER THE CHANGE TO TURBULENT FLOW (MINN = BOUNDARY LAYER LAMINAR FLOW = EEE §=— TURBULENT FLOW FRICTIONAL RESISTANCE = VELOCITY'V | FRICTIONALRESISTANCE « (VELOCITY ‘V)* THE REGION OF DISTURBED WATER THAT IS CREATED BY THE FRICTIONAL FORCES /S KNOWN AS THE BOUNDARY LAYER’ AND IT INCREASES IN WIDTH AS IT MOVES FURTHER ALONG THE LENGTH (OF THE PLANK PARTICULARLY AT THE TRANSITION FROM LAMINER TO TURBULENT FLOW OUNDARY LAYER, ill = REGION OF BERNOULLI FLOW CONDITIONS ‘Laminar and turbulent flow can be likened to traffic on a four or five lane motorway. In laminar flow conditions, the speed of traffic increases in orderly steps as we move from the slow lane to the fast lane but, within each lane, the vehicles move at the same speed. However, one broken down or very slow moving vehicle will act as a ‘turbulence! trigger as the traffic behind it must change lanes to get past and maintain speed. If this only happens occasionally, or the traffic is relatively light, the flow settles down again to the laminar conditions but as very slow moving vehicles become more frequent, or the traffic more dense, there is a tendency for ane changing to increase. More and more cars are speeding up then slowing down as they move in between the lanes, more energy is being expended by these changes of speed and the flow is becoming turbulent. Highway laws and traffic police, combined ‘with a fair amount of driver common sense, prevent traffic from becoming completely chaotic. Water ‘molecules, however, lack these admirable constraints and are indifferent to ‘oad rage’, so they just do their ‘own thing’. A riot of random motion and collisions breaks out in the boundary layer as molecules ‘move around to occupy any available space and the flow turns turbulent.Viscosity, and laminar or turbulent fluid flow (cont,) Laminar flow conditions have often been sought after for high performance craft moving through a fluid, particularly aireraft in which quite a lot of development has been carried out on laminar flow ‘wings. The U.S. navy has also carried out considerable research into the possibility of maintaining Jaminar flow over submarines and, in particular, torpedoes, though laminar flow, as, we will see later on, is not always so advantageous. The onset of turbulence in water flow around the hull can be delayed if any disturbing trigger is removed from the flow as soon as it occurs. One way of achieving this is to suck the local disturbance into the hull, which is a technique that has been employed in aircraft. The motorway equivalent of this. would be to immediately airlift any broken down vehicle off the road. Another approach could be to have a flexible ‘spongy’ coating that allows the hull surface to contour the flow. This would be like instantly adding and removing traffic lanes locally on the motorway to suite the traffic conditions. Man has frequently looked to nature for ideas on how to make things work better and, for @ ong time, it was believed that the fatty layer, just beneath the outer skin of a dolphin, acted as such a damper. ‘Similar spongy layers have also been found just beneath the skin of some fish. However, both fish and dolphins achieve propulsion by flexing parts oftheir bodies so flow conditions around them continually change. Experiments to replicate this damping effect on rigid bodies such as submarines have not been successful and the flow around these animals is not yet really understood. The nature of fluid flow and, in particular, the difference between laminar and turbulent flow, was first discovered and investigated by Osbourne Reynolds in the 1880's. He was primarily concerned with the flow of water in pipes, which was becoming increasingly important to civil engineers as industrial cites, with their water supplies and sanitation, were developing so fast. However, the principles that he laid down are also relevant to ships’ hull resistance. Reynolds’ experiments demonstrated that a flow would turn turbulent when the viscous forces became too weak, relative to the mass of the molecules of the fluid, to maintain orderly laminar flow. This can be predicted from the flow velocity, fluid viscosity, fluid density and the pipe's diameter. Turbulent flow is more likely to occur at higher velocities of a denser but less viscous fluid in a wider pipe. Reynolds combined all these factors together to describe a particular set of flow conditions by a single number, known as the ‘Reynolds Number. This number is non-dimensional so it will have the same value for a given flow, regardless of the units used, provided that these belong to a single consistent system. The density and dynamic viscosity of the fluid are usually combined in a single value, known as the ‘kinematic viscosity’, If the flow conditions in a pipe have a Reynolds number above a certain critical value, (about 2000) then the flow will tun turbulent, as illustrated below. THE CRITICAL REYN IBER FOR AN INTERNAL FLOW IN A PIPE Wy FLUID OF ‘=i viscosty 'y* os D DENY ‘9! i SSS "LAMINAR FLOW "Re’ < 2000 pvD | vo REYNOLOS' NUMBER ‘Ret = on vinene TE KNeManic scosTy\* = 2 yams UNS mrs THE REYNOLDS’ NUMBER IS NON-DIMMENSIONAL, SO IT WILL HAVE THE SAME VALUE IN ANY ‘SYSTEM OF UNITS. THE CRITICAL REYNOLDS NUMBER FOR INTERNAL FLOW ~ 2000 Reynolds was concerned with internal flows and although the transition from laminar to turbulent flow occurs in the external flow of water around a ship's hull, the situation is not quite the same. The flow within a pipe is constrained by the pipe's diameter and the surface area of the different velocity ‘shells’ of fluid in laminar flow is greatest where the fluid is stationary against the pipe wall.‘Viscosity, and laminar or turbulent fluid flow (cont.) As we move inward towards the faster moving layers of intemal flow through a pipe, their areas ‘become progressively smaller. However, in the case of extemal flows, frictional energy from the layer against the ship's side is dissipated outwards through flow layers of progressively increasing surface areas until its influence is negligible. This would be the effective limit of the boundary layer, which generally increases in width with increasing distance from the bow but there is no convenient physical outer boundary to measure this. Consequently, the Reynolds number for flow at any point along a ‘ship's hull is expressed in terms of the length of the hull from the bow, which replaces the diameter ‘measurement in the Reynolds number for internal flow through pipes. Understandably, this will produce a critical Reynolds number that is appreciably higher for an external flow than for an internal one, as, at any given point along the hull, the distance from the bow is considerably greater than the width of the boundary layer at that point. Furthermore, both the shape of the hull and its roughness influences the transition from laminar to turbulent flow, which occurs at a Reynolds number between 4 x 10° and 10° or even as high as 10’. However, laminar flow is not a serious option for merchant ships, which operate at Reynolds numbers in excess of, 10° and so they invariably experience turbulent low along nearly all of the hull length. Laminar flow effects do, though, need to be taken into account in scaled down model tests of full size vessels. ‘THE REYNOLDS NUMBER FOR A SHIP 0.4 x 10° < CRITICAL 'Re' < 10°, SO TAKING VALUES FOR SALTWATER AT 10°C DYNAMIC VISCOSITY OF SALTWATER AT 0°C = 1.87% 10° N-s/m? & AT25°C = 0.97x 10° N-s/m* ve rewnotos-numsen Ret = EYE pene sy) = 14x10? Nim? & 9" = 1028 kgm? SO AT MIDSHIPS, 'Re' = 562 x 10° AND AT THE STERN ‘Re’ = 112 x 107 ‘THE TRANSITION FROM LAMINAR TO TURBULENT FLOW ALONG THE SHIP'S HULL IS LIKELY TO OCCUR WITHIN 0.2% OF ITS LENGTH AFT OF THE BOW. ° 600 900 x10" REYNOLDS No. o1 50 100 150 Metres FROM BOW ‘Turbulent flow follows the contours of the hull as it tapers down towards the stem better than laminar flow. Here the flow is decelerating as the streamlines cone back together astem of the vessel. If the boundary layer fails to follow the hullform closely, ‘separation’ occurs and a void will be created that draws in large-scale water eddies from astem. The ship consequently drags an increased amount of water along with it and resistance increases. The random motion of the water particles in turbulent flow, however, delays separation more than laminar flow. Aireraft, as well as fish and birds, frequently have spoilers near the trailing edges of their wings or bodies, which create turbulence and discourage separation. The overall drag is reduced even though the flow becomes turbulent.THE FLOW AROUND A FOIL If.a person blows over the edge of a piece of paper whilst holding it by two comers between the thumb and finger of each hand, then the paper lifts up. The effect can be greatly enhanced if the edge of paper is curled over. TING AN UPW/ THE UPWARD FORCE IS ENHANCED BY CURLING AROUND THE LEADING EDGE OF THE PAPER ‘The piece of paper is acting as an aircraft wing in producing an upward force perpendicular to the paper's surface. When the paper is hanging as a flat sheet, itis easy to assume that this ‘normal force’ oon the flat sheet is simply the result ofthe impact of the air on its underside. However, we might expect that curling its leading edge would block off some of the under surface and yet repeating the experiment produces an even greater lift effect. This is actually due to the air flow over the top of the sheet being accelerated and therefore, by Bernoulli's principle, producing a drop in pressure. This occurs whenever a fluid flow does not divide equally around a solid obstruction. It is usually achieved by making the flow strike the obstruction asymmetrically and is enhanced by streamlining its shape. Structures built to generate a force from a fluid flow that is perpendicular to the direction of flow are known as foils. These include aircraft propeller blades, windmill sails, propeller blades, hydrofoils tc. in addition to aircraft wings. The component of the force perpendicular to the undisturbed flow is often called ‘lif even when it is horizontal as the principle is so predominant in aircraft flight. Asymmetrical flow is achieved by either the flow striking an asymmetrical foil or a symmetrical flow at an oblique angle, known as the ‘angle of attack’ or frequently a combination of both. GENERATING A NORMAL FORCE FROM AN IDEAL FLUID FLOW OVER A FOIL LOW OVE! }YMMETRICAL FOIL FLOW OVER A SYMMETRICAL FOIL NORMAL FORCE ‘FN’ NORMAL FORCE ‘Fn ee = STREAMLINES, @ = STAGNATION POINT (SEE PAGE 4), = = ANGLE OF ATTACK WHERE THE STREAMLINES ARE FORCED CLOSER TOGETHER ON THE UPPER SURFACES, FLOW 1S ACCELERATED AND THERE IS A DECREASE IN STATIC PRESSURE. WHERE THE STREAMLINES ‘SPREAD OUT ON THE LOWER SURFACE, FLOW IS DE-CELERATED AND PRESSURE INCREASES‘The flow around a foil (cont.) The asymmetrical flow around a foil can be considered as adding rotation to linear symmetrical flow as this will accelerate flow on one side of the foil (such as the upper surface of an aireraft wing) whilst decelerating it on the other side. This principle can be used to create a lifting force on a perfect sphere by giving it spin. A golf ball or cricket ball can travel much further ifitis given the correct spin as itis struck or thrown. In the case of the golf ball, this is achieved by striking the ball at the bottom. The dimples on the golf ball and the seam on a cricket ball are to roughen the surface so as the bal spins the air is more effectively dragged around into a rotational flow. ‘THE ROTATIONAL COMPONENT OF ASYMMETRICAL FLOW AROUND A FOIL NORMAL FORCE"FN’, THE SIDEWAYS FORCE GENERATED BY THE PRESSURE DIFFERENCE ACROSS THE FOIL. vp. —_ LP. bv ‘ASYMMETRICAL FLOW ‘SYMMETRICAL FLOW ROTATIONAL FLOW CAUSES ANET PRESSURE me VELOCITY 'V’ ALONE CAUSES VELOCITY '5y’ CAUSES DIFFERENCE WHICH = NO PRESSURE DIFFERENCE FLOW TO SPLIT PRODUCES LIFT ACROSS THE FOIL DIFFERENTIALLY The flow across the ow pressure side of a foil is accelerated and similarly, the rise in pressure on the high pressure side suffers deceleration so, by Bernoulli's theory, the pressure difference is proportional to the difference between the squares of two flow velocities either side of the foil (See page 4). The ‘squared’ nature ofthis relationship means that an increase of *+8v’in flow velocity creates a greater pressure change than a reduction of ‘Sv’ in flow, so the drop in pressure across the top of an aircraft ‘wing or hydrofoil, is greater than the increase in pressure underneath. Consequently, the suction’ on the low pressure side of a foil provides a progressively greater contribution to the force on the foil than the increase in pressure on the high pressure side as the change 'éy’ in flow velocity is increased. ‘The resulting force is angled to the direction of flow and can be resolved into two components; namely ‘drag’, which is opposes the undisturbed flow and li’, which is perpendicular to the undisturbed flow. PRI IT A HORIZONTAL FOIL AT AN‘ ACK * ot (FLOW VELociTY )* (sou? DRAG = LIFT xTAN a DRAG 0 v-y Vv VveeV = ANGLE OF ATTACK FLOW VELocITY [21= LowPressure pisTisuTION <2 = LOW PRESSURE PERPENDICULAR FORCE HIGH PRESSURE DISTIBUTION {> = HIGH PRESSURE PERPENDICULAR FORCE‘The flow around a foil (cont.) The greater contribution of the accelerated flow to the lift force can be further enhanced by increasing the surface area of the low pressure side of a foil, relative to the high pressure side. (The resulting force being the pressure difference multiplied by the area.) Consequently, the upper surface of an aircraft wing is more curved than the underwing and the forward side of a ship's propeller is more ‘curved than the aft face, These are foils that are generally designed to operate in one direction. Ships’ rudders, on the other hand, must work equally well at producing a sideways thrust in either direction so they are built with surfaces that are a mirror image of each other. We would expect the pressure change and, henee the perpendicular force, to be greatest about the maximum thickness of the fol’s section. In an ideal flow, the lift would be centred at the mid-width point ofa foil that was symmetrical about its vertical axis, as shown below. However, the viscous forces in a real fluid work to retard flow velocity as it moves further along the surface. This creates the boundary layer that becomes progressively thicker as we move downstream so the trailing half of the low pressure side of the foil contributes less to the lift than we could expect from an ideal flow. Consequently, in real fluid flow, the lift force is centred forward of the mid point of such a foil rRIBUTION OVER A. (=) = LowPRESSURE DISTIBUTION —AIBININE.- = BOUNDARY LAYER FLUID FLOW Fi REAL 1 THE BOUNDARY LAYER FORMED BY A REAL FLUID BOTH DECREASES THE OVERALL REDUCTION OF PRESSURE ON THE TOP SURFACE AND MOVES ITS CENTRE OF ACTION FURTHER FORWARD ‘The asymmetry of the flow increases if the flow strikes the foil at increasingly angles of attack and so the lift also increases with the angle of attack but only up to a certain angle. At angles of attack greater than this, the flow separates and the foil begins to stall, Flow on the foil’ high pressure side oversplls ‘onto the low pressure surface so the pressure differential and normal force are considerably reduced "THE ANGLE OF ATTACK AND STALL CONDITIONS Fi a1 ISLESS THAN Fea a2 iS GREATER THAN THE STALL ANGLE THE STALL ANGLE Ft > Fn a ‘THE UNDERSIDE HIGH PRESSURE FLOW HAS SPILLED ONTO THE UPPER SURFACE, THE FLOW HAS SEPARATED AND FORCE 'Fw' IS GREATLY REDUCED <4) Conpition OF ZERO LIFT & ATACK ANGLE = SSF THRE Is AN EQUAL DROP IN PRESSURE DUE TO THE fie ACCELERATED FLOW OVER THE LOWER AND UPPER SURFACE OF THE FOILDefinitions of foil measurements The diagrams below define foil measurements as they apply to typical sections used in marine rudders and propellers, Note again that the dynamic force perpendicular to the undisturbed flow direction is still called the 'ift’ force even though it is predominately horizontal when produced by a rudder or propeller. TERMS USED IN THE MEASUREMENT OF FOIL SECTIONS ‘TYPICAL PROPELLER BLADE SECTION TYPICAL RUDDER SECTION THE PROPELLER BLADE IS DESIGNED TO ‘THE RUDDER MUST BE EQUALLY CAPABLE OF PRODUCE LIFT FROM FLOW THAT IS PRODUCING LIFT IN EITHER DIRECTION SO THE PREDOMINATELY IN ONE DIRECTION, BUT FOIL HAS ZERO CAMBER. HOWEVER THE FLOW NOT EXCLUSIVELY SO. IS ALWAYS ONTO THE LEADING EDGE. ! 1 . ! 1 cHoro, ———> = ‘cord ———>} ~ = NOSE-TAILLINE, —-— = CAMBERLINE, ---- = CHORDLINE,

00, this expression for the velocity potential and the dispersion relation reduce to: io = Sab sin(ke—ut)} and f= kgl (29) ‘This last dispersion relation provides other definitions for the phase velocity in equation 2.4 of waves in deep water too: (2.10)2.1. REGULAR WAVES Simple and very practical relations between the wave length (m) and frequency (rad/s) or period (s) follow from this: 2ng _ 61.6 2 oe” a 9 7? Sion 1.56-T (2.11) or: ont and T#08-VX (2.12) Mind you that these relations between the wave length and the wave frequency or the wave period are valid for regular deep water waves only. They may not be used es relations ‘between the average values of these phenomena in irregular waves, which are treated in a following section. 2.1.2 Water Particle Kinematics ‘The kinematics of a water particle is found from the velocity components in the 2- and 2-directions, obtained from the velocity potential and the dispersion relation. Velocities ‘The resulting velocity components - in their most general form - can be expressed as: OG, _ dx hs MBs — S| — 49-0 - cos ka —wt) 00, _ dz] aa w= Se = El — Cu oF sin (ha — wt) (2.13) ‘An example of a velocity field is given in figure 2.2. Beneath the crest of a wave, the water movement is with the wave. Beneath the trough it is against the wave. This can be seen easily by watching a small object, such as a bottle, floating low in the water. It will move more or less with the water particles. ‘The combined motions in the 2- and 2-directions become circles, as will be treated hereafter. ‘The circular outline velocity or orbital velocity follows from the two equations 2.13: = Vite = Gwe (2.14) ‘This velocity, which consists of two harmonic contributions, is in this case not harmonic; in this case it is constant.CHAPTER 2. OCEAN SURFACE WAVES caval Stee eee Ee anh z vey Figure 2. /docity Field in a Deep Water Wave Displacements Because of the small steepness of the wave, + and z in the right hand side of the equa- tions 2.13 can be replaced by the coordinates of the mean position of the considered water particle: 2; and 2;. Hence the distances 2, and 2—2; are so small that differences in ve- locities resulting from the water motion position shifts can be neglected; they are of second order, Then, an integration of velocity equations over t yields the water displacements: sin (kay — wt) + Cy + 008 (hry — wt) + Co (2.15) ‘Trajectories It is obvious that the water particle carries out an oscillation in the 2- and z-directions about a point (Ci, C2). ‘This point will hardly deviate from the situation in rest, so: C1 1 and 0% 21. The trajectory of the water particle is found by an elimination of the time, ¢, by using: sin? (kay — wt) +008 (kay — wt) = 1 (2.16) which provides: (e—21)?+ (2-41)? = (Cae)? (2.17) ‘This equation shows that the trajectories of water particles are circles, with aradius, Gye, which decreases exponentially with distance below the surface. Figure 2.3 shows an example of these trajectories.2.1. REGULAR WAVES UB aay een Figure 2.3: Trajectories of Water Particles in a Deep Water Wave ‘The trajectory radius, r, decrease very fast with increasing distance below the free surface as a result of the negative value for 21 in the exponential term e*. This is illustrated here: = 1000-6, 043+ Co 1.002 + Cy Fe) Stree ce mle = One should remember from kinematics that the velocity of the water particles will have a constant magnitude in this case and that it is always directed tangentially to the trajectory circle. Accelerations ‘The water particle accelerations follow directly from a differentiation of the velocity com- ponents, which yields: He) § 4cu2- et sin (ke — wt) (2.18) Relative to the velocity components, the accelerations have amplitudes which have been multiplied by w; also their corresponding phases have been shifted by 90 degrees as well. Tt is wise to note that in a circular motion, the magnitude of the acceleration is constant and that it is always directed toward the center of the circle. This acceleration vector is therefore also always perpendicular to the velocity vector. 2.1.3 Pressure ‘The pressure, p, in the first order wave theory follows from the Bernoulli equation:CHAPTER 2. OCEAN SURFACE WAVES abe 1 2 Bed et ru brge=d (2.19) or: By 1 p= p92 — p> — Sp (u +0?) (2.20) ‘The definition of the wave potential, the expressions for the water particle velocities and. some algebra lead to: p= -p0r + patae!-cos(kr — at) — Factual a) ‘Three parts can be distinguished in this expression for the pressure: 1. The first part, p = —pgz, is the (zero" order) hydrostatic pressure as used in ‘Archimedes? law and treated in the hydrostatic stability theory for floating bodies. 2. The second part, p® = +pg¢,e" -cos(ka — w#), is the (first order) dynamic pressure due to the wave form and will be used in a next chapter when treating "first order wave loads” on floating bodies. 3. The third part, p = —4p(2u%e™*, is the (second order) pressure due to the local kinetic energy in the waves - also called radiation pressure - and will be used in a next chapter when treating "second order wave drift forces” on floating bodies. 2.1.4 Wave Energy The theory about wave energy will be treated in detail in a next lecture; only the final ‘theoretical results are given here. If one drops a stone in still water, shortly later radial waves come into existence and they travel away from the point of impact. A certain amount of energy has been put into the water by the impact. Part of this energy is stored in the deformation of the water surface as potential energy and, part of it is found in the motion of the deformation as kinetic energy. ‘The total energy in the waves can be written as: = Foot per unit horizontal sea surface area (2.22) ‘This total energy will be used in a following section on. wave energy spectra.2.1. REGULAR WAVES 2.1.5 Numerical Exercises Consider a towing tank filled with fresh water with a length of 150 meters, a width of 5 meters and a wave maker in one end that generates long-crested regular waves. Assume in this tank a generated regular deep water wave with an amplitude ¢, = 0.20 meter and a wave period T = 2.0 seconds. Determine: 1. The circular wave frequency, w, the wave number, k, and the wave length, A. . The maximum fluid particle velocity in the tank. ‘The path of a fluid particle in the surface of the wave. 2. 3. 4. The path of a fluid particle at 0.50 meter below the still water level. 5, The maximum pressure at 0.50 meter below the still water level. 6. The phase velocity, ¢, of these waves. 7. ‘The time between passing an observer along the tank side of two successive wave crests. 8. The phase of the wave elevation 2.50 meter closer to the wave maker relative to the position of an observer. Solutions: 1, w = 3.14 rad/s, k= 1.0 m™ and d= 6.25 m. ‘Uesax = Vinge = 0.63 m/s. . Circular motion with a radius of 0.20 m. . Circular motion with a radius of 0.12 m. Pronx = 0.62 - 10" N/m?. . c= 3.12 m/s. neep ern t=T=20s. = —25 rad = 144°,CHAPTER 2. OCEAN SURFACE WAVES 2.2 Irregular Waves Ocean surface waves can be classified into two basic categories: © Sea ‘A sea is a train of waves driven by the prevailing local wind field. The waves are short-crested with the lengths of the crests only a few (2-3) times the apparent wave ength. Also, sea waves are very irregular; high waves are followed unpredictably by low waves and vice versa. Individual wave crests seem to propagate in different directions with tens of degrees deviation from the mean direction. ‘The crests are fairly sharp and sometimes even small waves can be observed on these crests or there are dents in the larger wave crests or troughs. ‘The apparent or virtual wave period, T, varies continuously, as well as the virtual or apparent wave length, A. © Swell ‘A swell is waves which have propagated out of the area and local wind in which they ‘wore generated. They are no longer dependent upon the wind and can even propagate for hundreds of kilometers through areas where the winds are calm. Individual waves are more regular and the crests are more rounded than those of a sea. The lengths of the crests are longer, now several (6-7) times the virtual wave length. The wave height is more predictable, too. If the swell is high, 5 to 6 waves of approximately equal heights can pass a given point consecutively. If the waves are low, they can stay low for more than a minute even though the surface elevation remains irregular. In the general case, the total irregular waves are a superposition of the sea and the swell at that location; they can be added as is shown in the following sections. 2.2.1 Simple Statistical Analysis Figure 2.4 shows a part of a simple time history of an irregular wave, When such a time history is available, then a simple analysis can be carried out to obtain statistical data from this record, The length of this time history should be at least 100 times the longest wave period, to obtain reliable statistical information. The analysis presented in this section can be carried out by hand G Hie Figure 2.4: ‘Time History of a Seaway2.2, IRREGULAR WAVES Figure 2.5: Histogram of Wave Heights Average Wave Period ‘The average wave period, T, can be found easily (by hand) from the average zero up- crossing period or from the average period of the wave crests or troughs. The simplest way to do this is to divide the record duration one less than the number of upward (or downward) zero crossings found. ‘Wave Height Statistics Obtaining an average wave height requires more work. Successive wave heights are mea- sured and classified in groups with intervals of, for instance, 0.5 meter. The number of tvave heights in cach group is then counted. These counts for each group are divided by the total number of wave heights to obtain the frequency quotients or the probability density function, f(z). Finally these frequency quotients are added cumulatively to obtain the ‘cumulative frequency quotients. The probability density function of wave heights, f(z), is given in figure 2.5 as a histogram. As one uses even more waves to determine this function, the function converges to a stable form. Statistical information can be obtained from the probability density function, f(z). Por example, the probability that the wave height, A, exceeds a certain threshold value, a, in this record is given by: P {Fw > a} = fre ode (2.23) ‘A numerical example of this approach is given in the table below.Figure 2.6: A Sum of Many Simple Sine Waves Makes an Irregular Sea ‘This means that the irregular waves can be written as: w 62.8) = Can C08(unt — hace + En) =i 2.2.3 Energy Density Spectrum see figure 2.7. Suppose a time history, as given in figure 2.8, of the wave elevation during a sufficient long but arbitrary period: r=N-At ‘The instantaneous wave elevation has a Gaussian distribution and zero mean. The am- plitudes ¢,, can be obtained by Fourier analysis of the signal. However, for each little time shift of the time history one will find a new series of amplitudes ¢.,,. Luckily, a mean. square value of ¢,, can be found: @,. ‘When ¢(t) is an irregular signal without prevailing frequencies, the average values @, close tow, will not change much as a function of the frequency; @ is a continuous function. The variance 0? of this signal is equal to the average value of the squares of the wave elevation: a=CHAPTER 2. OCEAN SURFACE WAVES al f\ Time Domain Measured Wave Record Figure 2.7: Wave Record Analysis so LAN Figure 2.8: Registration and Sampling of a Wave reunite rue DG wards at ae A - 1 foo-ant [{Zectuemera} dt " = O36 22) ‘The wave amplitude, ¢,,, can be expressed by a wave spectrum, Sc(wn): Tae] [Definition: S¢(wn)-Aw= > fav] (2.25)2.2. IRREGULAR WAVES where Aw is a constant difference between two successive frequencies; see figure 2.9. Mul- tiplied with pg, this expression is the energy per unit area of the waves in the frequency interval Aw, which will be treated in detail in a next lecture. sea scion) Figure 2.9: Definition of Spectral Density Letting Aw — 0, the definition of the wave energy spectrum, S¢(is), becomes: (2.26) and the variance, 02, of the water surface elevation is simply equal to the area under the spectrum: of= [so dy (2.27) 3 Figure 2.7 gives a graphical interpretation of the meaning of a wave spectrum and how it relates to the waves. The irregular wave history, ¢(t), in the time domain at the lower left hand part of the figure can be expressed via Fourier series analysis as the sum of a large number of regular wave components, each with its own frequency, amplitude and phase in the frequency domain. These phases will appear to be rather random, by the way. ‘The value }(3(w)/Aw - associated with each wave component on the w-axis - is plotted vertically in the middle; this is the wave energy spectrum, Sc(w). This spectrum, S¢(w), can be described nicely in a formula; the phases are usually thrown away. ‘Wave Height and Period Relationships with statistics can be found from computing the moments of the area under the spectrum with respect to the vertical axis at w = 0. Ifm denotes » moment of properties of the wave spectrum with respect to the vertical axis at w =0, then mpc denotes the n‘* order moment given in this case by: bing fe Se(w) - des (2.28)CHAPTER 2. OCEAN SURFACE WAVES ‘This means that moc is the area under the spectral curve, mc is the first order moment (static moment) of this area and mac is the second order moment (moment of inertia) of this area. {As has already been indicated, mo; is an indication of the variance squared, mg: = 02, of the water surface elevation. Of course this moc can also be related to the various wave amplitudes and heights: (Root Mean Square of the water surface elevation) a (significant wave amplitude) [Fip=4- vite | (significant wave height) (2.29) Characteristic wave periods can be defined from the spectral moments: my = W1' Mog with w) is spectral centroid mg = 2 -1mge with wy is spectral radius of inertia (2.30) 2s follows: IT = 2° 4 (mean centroid wave period) z |r = 2r- (7%) (mean zero-crossing wave period) (2.31) ‘The mean zero-crossing period, 72, is sometimes indicated by T;- One will often find the period associated with the peak of the spectrum, Tp, in the literature as well. Rayleigh Distribution ‘Expressed in terms of meg, the Rayleigh distribution is given by: =} (Rayleigh distribution) (2.32) in which « is the variable being studied and meg is the area under the spectral curve. ‘This distribution can be used for more or less narrow spectra. This is true for normal wave spectra; they are not too wide. Generally, its frequencies vary between w = 0.2 and =15-2.0. With this distribution, the probability that the wave amplitude, ¢,, exceeds a chosen threshold value, a, can be calculated using: P {a> a} FG 0 ous & & (2.33)2.2, IRREGULAR WAVES or: a P {Ca >a} = exp Siovmia (2.34) ‘The number of times per hour that the threshold value, a, will be exceeded by the waves is this probability, P-{C, >a}, times the number of oscillations per hour, 3600 / 73: Niour = P{Cq > a} a (2.35) 2.2.4 Standard Wave Spectra Investigators have attempted to describe a wave frequency spectrum in a standard form. ‘Two important ones often found in the literature are described here. The mathematical formulations of these normalized uni-directional wave energy spectra are based on two parameters: the significant wave height, His, and average wave periods T' = T;, T or Tp: Sew) = Mis f (wT) (2.36) Note that this definition means that the spectral values are proportional to the significant wave height squared; in other words S¢(w)/H?), is a function of w and T only. Bretschneider Wave Spectra One of the oldest and most popular wave spectra was given by Bretschneider. It is especially suited for open sea areas and mathematically given by: 173 - Hi, So) = SE uo { (2.37) For not-truncated wave spectra, other wave period definitions can be used by substituting: Ty =1.086-T, or 1, =0.772-Tp JONSWAP Wave Spectra In 1968 and 1969 an extensive wave measurement program, known as the Joint North Sea Wave Project (JONSWAP) was carried out along a line extending over 100 miles into the North Sea from Sylt Island. Analysis of the data yielded a spectral formulation for fetch-limited wind generated seas. ‘The following definition of a Mean JONSWAP wave spectrum is advised by the 17th ITTC in 1984 for fetch limited situations: 320. H? ag Sela) = Sw exp i vw} of (2.38) 7 HCHAPTER 2. OCEAN SURFACE WAVES with: 7 = 33 (peakedness factor) 1? A= -(25 fee ( ove ) Qn . p= FE (Creular frequency at spectral peal) a step function of w: if w < wp then: o = 0.07 ifw > wp then: 6 =0.09 a 0 ‘Taking 7" = 1.522 results in the formulation of the Bretschneider wave spectrum with the peak period, 7; Sometimes, a third free parameter is introduced in the JONSWAP wave spectrum by varying the peakedness factor, 7. For not-truncated wave spectra, other wave period definitions can be used by substituting: T=1.200-T, or T= 1287-T ‘Wave Spectra Comparison Figure 2.10 compares the Bretschneider and mean JONSWAP wave spectra for three sea. states with a significant wave height, His, of 4 meters and peak periods, >, of 6, 8 and 10 seconds, respectively. The figure shows the more pronounced peak of the JONSWAP spectrum, while the areas under all spectral density curves are the same. Figure 2.10: Comparison of Two Spectral Formulations 2.2.5 Wave Prediction and Climatology In 1808, the British Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort devised an observation scale for measuring winds at sea. His scale measures winds by observing their effects on sailing ships and waves2.2, IRREGULAR WAVES and is still used today by many weather stations. A definition of this Beaufort wind force scale is given in figure 2.11. The pictures in figure 2.12 give a visual impression of the sea states in relation to Beaufort’s scale. Short Term Wave Data An entire storm can be characterized by just two numbers: one related to the wave height ‘and one to the wave period. It now becomes important to predict these values from other data - such as geographical and meteorological information. Figure 2.13 for "Open Ocean Areas” and "North Sea Areas” gives an indication of an average relationship between the Beaufort wind scale and the significant wave height Hy. and the average wave periods T; and Ts, defined before. Notice that these short term or storm wave data are linked here to wind data. This is quite ‘common in practice since wind data is often much more available or can be predicted rather easily from other available meteorological data. But, these relations are an indication only. Fixed relations between wave height and period does not exist; the history and duration of the wind plays an important role. Long Term Wave Data Longer term wave climatology is used to predict the statistical chance that for instance a given wave-sensitive offshore operation - such as lifting a major topside element into place - will be delayed by sea conditions which are too rough. Sets of characteristic wave data values can be grouped and arranged in a table such as that given below for all wave directions in the winter season in areas 8, 9, 15 and 16 of the North Atlantic Ocean. A storm” here is an arbitrary time period - often of 3 or 6 hours - for which a single pair of values bas been collected. The number in each cell of this table indicates the chance that a significant wave height is between the values in the left column and in the range of wave periods listed at the top of the table. 9,18 and 16 of the Norh Atantle (Gel Wave Satie) aw ‘These wave scatter diagrams can be used to determine the long term probability for storms exceeding certain sea states. Each cell in this table presents the probability of occurrence of its significant wave height and zero-crossing wave period range. This probability is equalCHAPTER 2. OCEAN SURFACE WAVES a eee os tt euanz sar or uaons evens 6 wos oa 8 “abewoas 4 ops 9 ay oR 263 5 swear han aja annem ° wasn aveany votsd3s9p oueojaany 03s 129 104m 219 Gunns a9 yep 23222604 araasg 6u0.ns ora0ag yea rao 92829908 aro0.g a13088 sxa0.g 3454) ape 30657 mea uoyauyotep sve 4 94 $n 300 su sou 21019 eau, wan pa6ur wees 29} ain poten 9p in psn aubu00 suse sarsetg 3009 sunseotg suneeotd PLN ope soy .¥°9) ‘uogneog “Tho w2ang 9944495 uoReOR “iq uot Né}O5NP 5, 101585 644204 FH Mow oO ' oe : : . v8 Wy u ot * papnty 95019 syouy cog ney 95012 53 yt a, ‘goat sdiys 2H Tes TT oa aT zt aneqe ce OnORe Se ot ee e eo a 2 8 wz now ‘ eat es vs a oe shoe tae seazes aun £9 o40ge ° 96 8 ” a i o * ce w a 2 wz a ea " o L ° , © t i 0 som Figure 2.11: Beaufort’s Wind Force Seale2.2, IRREGULAR WAVES Figure 2.12: Sea State in Relation to Beaufort Wind Force ScaleCHAPTER 2. OCEAN SURFACE WAVES 2 R " " 10 —E ge . ze ig? 28 ge 6 2 Al 5 3e a2 4 2 B 3 2 ° ° 012345678 901112 o123456789 10112 Beauiort Boautort Figure 2.13: Wave Spectrum Parameter Estimates to the number in this cell divided by the sum of the numbers of all cells in the table, for instance: 47072 Pr{4< Hyjs<5and8 ro} = SSO SH AG EE — ood = 1.4% Pr {3 < Hyp <5 and 8 <7) <10} = 0.242 = 24.2%2.2, IRREGULAR WAVES 2.2.6 Numerical Exercises Exercise 1 ‘The following histogram of wave heights has been derived from a time history of the surface elevation of an irregular wave system. 1. Give a definition of the conception "significant wave height, His” and calculate this value. 2. What is the probability in this storm that the double wave amplitude, Hw, will exceed a value of 2.75 meter? 3. What is the probability that the significant wave height, Hy, will be exceaded? Solutions: 1. Hip = 251m. 2, P{ i, > 2.75 m} = 0.0. 3. P{ Hla > Hys} ~ 0.46. Exercise 2 ‘A simplified wave energy spectrum is given by: 1, Calculate (by using the trapezoid rule) the significant wave height, His, and the mean wave periods T; and Tz. Give a physical explanation of each of these phenom- ena. 2, Determine the probebility, P, of exceeding a wave height of 4.0 meter in this wave spectrum by using the Rayleigh probability density function.CHAPTER 2. OCEAN SURFACE WAVES OM Se x x S08 Z| x4 we Kose \ BX RX SBR So x 8 KS & Be & 3 Figure 2.14: Simplified Wave Energy Spectrum . Determine also the number of times per hour that this wave height will be exceeded. Explain the term mo in the Rayleigh probability density function. ‘Which restriction should be kept in mind when using this probability density func- tion? ‘What is the probability that the significant wave height, Hy/s, will be exceeded? ‘What is the disadvantage of the use of T) when analyzing a measured wave spectrum? Solutions: ee yor Hig = 27 m, Ti = 7.0 sand Th= 69s. P=12% . 6.3 times per hour. Note: Use T? for this and not T;! . The magnitude of mp in the Rayleigh probability density function is the spectral area of the considered time-dependent variable. This Rayleigh distribution is valid for more or less narrow spectra. P{2, > Hys} ‘The more or less uncertain or truncated tail” of the spectrum has a larger influence on 7} than it has on T;. 2 rw 0.135.Chapter 3 Behavior of Structures in Waves ‘The dynamics of rigid bodies and fluid motions are governed by the combined actions of different external forces and moments as well as by the inertia of the bodies themselves. In fluid dynamics these forces and moments can no longer be considered as acting at a single point or at discrete points of the system. Instead, they must be distributed in a relatively smooth or a continuous manner throughout the mass of the fluid particles. The force and moment distributions and the kinematic description of the fluid motions are in fact continuous, assuming that the collection of discrete fluid molecules can be analyzed as a continuum. ‘Two very good and readable books are advised here as a supplement to these lectures. AR.J.M. Lloyd published in 1989 his book on ship hydromechanics, Seakeeping, Ship Behaviour in Rough Weather, ISBN 0-7458-0230-3, Ellis Horwood Limited, Markot Cross House, Cooper Street, Chichester, West Sussex, P019 1EB England. OM. Faltinsen, Professor of Marine Technology at the Norwegian University of Sdence and Technology is the author of Sea Loads on Ships and Offshore Structures, published in 1990 in the Cambridge University Press Series on Ocean ‘Technology. 3.1. Behavior in Regular Waves When on board a ship looking toward the bow (front end) one is looking forward. The stern is aft at the other end of the ship. As one looks forward, the starboard side is one’s right and the port side is to one’s left. ‘The motions of a ship, just as for any other rigid body, can be split into three mutually perpendicular translations of the center of gravity, G, and three rotations around G: © three translations of the ship’s center of gravity (CoG or G) in the direction of the a, y and z-axes: — surge in the longitudinal z-direction, positive forwards, — sway in the lateral y-direction, positive to port side, and — heave in the vertical z-direction, positive upwards.CHAPTER 3. BEHAVIOR OF STRUCTURES IN WAVES Figure 3.1: Definition of Ship Motions in Six Degrees of Freedom © three rotations about these axes: — roll about the «c-axis, positive right turning, — pitch about the y-axis, positive right turning, and — yaw about the z-axis, positive right turning, ‘These definitions have been visualized in figure 3.1. In many cases these motion components will have small amplitudes. Any ship motion is, build up from these basic motions. For instance, the vertical motion of a bridge wing is mainly build up by heave, pitch and roll motions. Another important motion is the vertical relative motion, defined as the vertical wave elevation minus the local vertical motion of the ship. Thus, this is the motion that one observes when looking over the rail downwards to the waves. 3.1.1 Axis Conventions ‘Three right-handed orthogonal coordinate systems are used to define the ship motions: @ An earth-bound coordinate system 5(to,¥o, 20)- ‘The (zo, yo)-plane lies in the still water surface, the positive z-axis is in the direction of the wave propagation; it can be rotated at a horizontal angle 1 relative to the translating axis system O(z,y,2) as shown in figure 22. The positive z-axis is directed upwards. «A body-bound coordinate system G(x, w, 2). This system is connected to the ship with its origin at the ship’s center of gravity, G. The directions of the positive axes are: 2, in the longitudinal forward direction, ysin the lateral port side direction and z upwards. If the ship is floating upright in still water, the (xe, yp)-plane is parallel to the still water surface.3.1, BEHAVIOR IN REGULAR WAVES P © A steadily translating coordinate system O(x, y,2)- ‘This system is moving forward with a constant ship speed V. If the ship is stationary, the directions of the O(x,y,z) axes are the same as those of the G(s, ys, 2) axes. ‘The (z,y)-plane lies in the still water surface with the origin O at, above or under the time-averaged position of the center of gravity G. The ship is supposed to carry out oscillations around this steadily translating O(z, y, z) coordinate system. 2 Figure 3.2: Coordinate Systems ‘The harmonic elevation of the wave surface ¢ is defined in the earth-bound coordinate system by: = Ca cos(wt — kro) (3.1) in which: wave amplitude (m) ‘wave number (rad/m) wave length (m) circular wave frequency (rad/s) time (s) 3.1.2 Frequency of Encounter ‘The wave speed c, defined in a direction with an angle 1 (wave direction) relative to the ship's speed vector V, follows from: (see chapter 2) (3.2) ‘The steadily translating coordinate system O(z, y, z) is moving forward at the ship’s speed V, which yields: [p= Vecosp + 2cosp + ysin pl (3.3)CHAPTER 3. BEHAVIOR OF STRUCTURES IN WAVES a Veos w x9, Figure 3.3: Frequency of Encounter When a ship moves with a forward speed, the frequency at which it encounters the waves, We, becomes important. Then the period of encounter, T., see figure 3.3, is: a d T= Vetus a) = Vewsn (4) and the circular frequency of encounter, we, becomes: Ieee cee ee cos) ey con a) (3.5) 7 x Note that j1= 0 for following waves. Using kc =w from equation 3.2, the relation between the frequency of encounter and the wave frequency becomes: we Note that at zero forward speed (V frequencies we and w are identical. In deep water, with the dispersion relation k = w2/g, this frequeney relation becomes: ov cons (36) ) or in beam waves (= 90° or ps = 270°) the (3.7) Using the frequency relation in equation 3.6 and equations 3.1 and 33, it follows that the ‘wave elevation can be given by: IC = 6, cos(wet — kr cos ps — ky sin pi) (38) 3.1.3 Motions of and about CoG ‘The ship motions in the steadily translating O(z, y, z) system are defined by three trans- lations of the ship's center of gravity (CoG) in the direction of the a-, y- and 2-axes and three rotations about them as given in figure 3.1:3.1. BEHAVIOR IN REGULAR WAVES Surge: ¢= macos(wet +z) Sway : y=yacos(wet +64) Heave : z= z,c0s(wet + €2c) Roll: = Ga cos(uct + £44) Pitch : = O,cos(wet + coc) Yaw : p= Wacos(wet + eye) (39) in which each of the ¢ values is a different phase angle. Knowing the motions of and about the center of gravity, G, one can calculate the motions in any point on the structure using superposition. ‘The phase shifts of these motions are related to the harmonic wave elevation at the origin of the steadily translating O(c, y,z) system, the average position of the ship's center of gravity - even though no wave can be measured there: Wave elevation at OorG: — ¢ = C,cos(wet) (3.10) 3.1.4 Displacement, Velocity and Acceleration ‘The harmonic velocities and accelerations in the steadily translating O(2,y, 2) coordinate system are found by taking the derivatives of the displacements. For roll: Displacement : = G,c08(wet + Exc) Velocity : = —weda sin (wet + €4¢) = Weba 005 (Wet + Ege + /2) Acceleration b= —w2d, cos(wet + eye) = 2h, cos(wet + eye +m) (3.11) =qcos\wt +egr) Figure 3.4: Harmonic Wave and Roll Signal ‘The phase shift of the roll motion with respect to the wave elevation, eg in figure 3.4, is positive, here because when the wave elevation passes zero at a certain instant, the roll motion already has passed zero. Thus, if the roll motion, 6, comes before the wave elevation, ¢, then the phase shift, cc, is defined as positive. This convention will hold for all other responses as well of course. Figure 3.5 shows a sketch of the time histories of the harmonic angular displacements, velocities and accelerations of roll. Note the mutual phase shifts of /2 and 7.CHAPTER 3. BEHAVIOR OF STRUCTURES IN WAVES Figure 3.5: Displacement, Acceleration and Velocity 3.1.5 Motions Superposition Knowing the motions of and about the center of gravity, G, one can calculate the motions in any point on the structure using superposition. Absolute Motions Absolute motions are the motions of the ship in the steadily translating coordinate system O(z,y,z). The angles of rotation 4, 9 and % are assumed to be small (for instance < 0.1 rad.), which is a necessity for linearizations. They must be expressed in radians, because in the linearization it is assumed that: Engeg@] and = Jeospn i] (3.12) For small angles, the transformation matrix from the body-bound coordinate system to the steadily translating coordinate system is very simple: x 14 @ DB yl=| % 1-o]-[w (3.13) z 6 ¢ 1 e ‘Using this matrix, the components of the absolute harmonic motions of a certain point P(2», ye, %) on the structure are given by: np = 2 — yo + 206 ep 2 +d (3.14) in which 2, y, z, 6, 0 and @ are the motions of and about the center of gravity, G, of the structure. ‘As can be seen in equation 3.14, the vertical motion, zp, in a point P(2s,¥s,24) on the floating structure is made up of heave, roll and pitch contributions. When looking more detailed to this motion - it is called here now /(we,t) for convenient writing - it can be found: hat) = 2-a0+nd3.1. BEHAVIOR IN REGULAR WAVES = % 008(Wet + €2¢) — 749 q C08(wet + Eoc) + Yobq COS(wet + Ege) = {+2c0see — 2Pacos eae + Uibe cose a} - c08(wet) — {+24 sin exc — 28a sin £0 + yoo, Sin Eg} in(wet) (3.15) ‘As this motion h has been obtained by a linear superposition of three harmonic motions, this (resultant) motion must be harmonic as well: A Wet) = hq cos(wet + €nc) = {he cose ns} + cos(wet) — {ha sineng} -sin(wet) (3.16) in which h, is the motion amplitude and ¢,¢ is the phase lag of the motion with respect to the wave elevation at G. By equating the terms with cos(wet) in equations 3.15 and 3.16 (wet = 0, so the sin(wet)- terms are zero) one finds the in-phase term fh, cos enc; equating the terms with sin(i2t) in equations 3.15 and 3.16 (uct = 1/2, so the cos(w.t)-terms are zero) provides the out-of- phase term hgsinége of the vertical displacement, in P: gcos en, = -b2acoseac ~ 204008 Ex + Yt, cOBe% hasinen, = +zsinese — mBasinegc + rn,sin ee (3.17) Since the right hand sides of equations 3.17 are known, the amplitude hg and phase shift eng become: ha = \/ (hasinenc)? + (a cos enc) hgsing 5 eng = arctan co with: 0 < eyg < 2a] (3.18) ‘The phase angle ei has to be determined in the correct quadrant between 0 and 2. This depends on the signs of both the numerator and the denominator in the expression for the arctangent. If the phase shift ey¢ has been determined between ~m/2 and +m/2 and hgcoseng is negative, then should be added or subtracted from this ex¢ to obtain the correct phase shift. For ship motions, the relations between displacement or rotation, velocity and acceleration are very important. The vertical velocity and acceleration of point P on the structure follow simply from the first. and second derivative with respect to the time of the displacement in equation 3.15: h = —wehe sin (wet + ng) = {weha} - 008 (wet + {eng + 2/2}) H, = whe cos (wet + eng) = {w2ha} -cos (wet + feng + =}) (3.19) ‘The amplitudes of the motions and the phase shifts with respect to the wave elevation at G are given between braces {...} here. Vertical Relative Motions The vertical relative motion of the structure with respect to the undisturbed wave surface is the motion that one sees when looking overboard from a moving ship, downwards towardCHAPTER 3. BEHAVIOR OF STRUCTURES IN WAVES the waves. This relative motion is for instance of importance for shipping water on deck. ‘The vertical relative motion s at P(x», y) is defined by: =Cp-2 +20 — wo (3.20) with for the local wave elevation: Cp = Cacos(uet — key cosy — yp sin) (21) where —kz»cos 1 — kyssinyt is the phase shift of the local wave elevation relative to the wave elevation in the center of gravity. ‘The amplitude and phase shift of this relative motion of the structure can be determined in a way analogous to that used for the absolute motion. 3.1.6 Equations of Motion Consider a seaway with irregular waves of which the energy distribution over the wave frequencies (the wave spectrum) is known. ‘These waves are input to agystem that possesses linear characteristics. These frequency characteristics are known, for instance via model experiments or computations. The output of the system is the motion of the floating structure. This motion has an irregular behavior, just as the seaway that causes the motion. The block diagram of this principle is given in figure 3.6. Input C(t), waves: output 2(), motions, ‘wavespectrum ——> frequency characteristics —» motionspectrum Figure 3.6: Relation between Motions and Waves ‘The first harmonics of the motion components of a floating structure are often of interest, because in many cases a very realistic mathematical model of the motions in a seaway can be obtained by making use of a superposition of these components at each of a range of frequencies; motions in the so-called frequency domain will be considered here. In many cases the ship motions have mainly a linear behavior. This means that, at each frequency, the ratios between the motion amplitudes and the wave amplitudes and also the phase shifts between the motions and the waves are constant. Doubling the input (wave) amplitude results in a doubled output amplitude, while the phase shifts between output and input does not change. ‘As a consequence of the linear theory, the resulting motions in irregular waves can be obtained by adding together results from regular waves of different amplitudes, frequencies and possibly propagation directions. With known wave energy spectra and the calculated frequency characteristics of the responses of the ship, the response spectra and the statistics of these responses can be found.3.1. BEHAVIOR IN REGULAR WAVES Kinetics A rigid body’s equation of motions with respect to an earth-bound coordinate system follow from Newton's second law. The vector equations for the translations of and the rotations about the center of gravity are respectively given by: B 4 (mi) ma (3.22) in which F is the resulting external force acting in the center of gravity (N), m is the mass of the rigid body (kg), 7 is the instantaneous velocity of the center of gravity (m/s), M is the resulting external moment acting about the center of gravity (Nm), H is the instantaneous angular momentum about the center of gravity (Nims) and ¢ is the time (s). ‘The total mass as well as its distribution over the body is considered to be constant: during a time which is long relative to the oscillation period of the motions. Loads Superposition [wo Jo 7 = + motion oscillation restrained ‘in waves in still water in waves Figure 3.7: Superposition of Hydromechanical and Wave Loads Since the system is linear, the resulting motion in waves can be seen as a superposition of the motion of the body in still water and the forces on the restrained body in waves. ‘Thus, two important assumptions are made here for the loads on the right hand side of the picture equation in figure 3.7: ‘a. The so-called hydromechanical forces and moments are induced by the harmonic oscillations of the rigid body, moving in the undisturbed surface of the fluid. b. The so-called wave exciting forces and moments are produced by waves coming in on the restrained body. ‘The vertical motion of the body follows from: a GV) =e Fit Po (3.28) in which p is the density of water (kg/m*), V is the volume of displacement of the body (m3), Fj, is the hydromechanical force in the direction (N) and Fy, is the exciting wave force in the z-direction (N). ‘This superposition will be explained in more detail for a circular cylinder, floating in still water with its center line in the vertical direction, as shown in figure 3.8.CHAPTER 3. BEHAVIOR OF STRUCTURES IN WAVES Figure 3.8: Heaving Circular Cylinder ‘Hydromechanical Loads First, a free decay test in still water will be considered. After a vertical displacement upwards (see 3.8-b), the cylinder will be released and the motions can die out freely. The vertical motions of the cylinder are determined by the solid mass m of the cylinder and the hydromechanical loads on the cylinder. ‘Applying Newton’s second law for the heaving cylinder: mz = sum of all forces on the cylinder —P + ply ~ bi — a8 = -P+ pg(T 2) Aw—bi-ad (3.24) With Archimedes’ law P = pgT'Aw, the linear equation of the heave motion becomes: (m+a)£+bi+cz=0 (3.25) in which z is the vertical displacement (m), P = mg is the mass force downwards (N), m = pAgI is the solid mass of cylinder (kg), a is the hydrodynamic mass coefficient (Ns?/m = ke), b is the hydrodynamic damping coefficient (Ns/m = kg/s), c= pgAw is the restoring spring coefficient (N/m = kg/s*), Ay = 4D? is the water plane area (m?), D is the diameter of the cylinder (m) and T is the draft of the cylinder at rest (s). ‘The terms ai and bé are caused by the hydrodynamic reaction as a result of the movement, of the cylinder with respect to the water. ‘The water is assumed to be ideal and thus to behave as in a potential flow. ‘The vertical oscillations of the cylinder will generate waves which propagate radially from it. Since these waves transport energy, they withdraw energy from the (free) buoy’s oscilla- tions; its motion will die out. This so-called wave damping is proportional to the velocity of the cylinder 2 in a linear system. The coefficient has the dimension of a mass per unit of3.1. BEHAVIOR IN REGULAR WAVES o o Moss cookies m8 ten) ‘ping Catan Go) Figure 3.9: Mass and Damping of a Heaving Vertical Cylinder time and is called the (wave or potential) damping coefficient. Figure 3.9-b shows the hydrodynamic damping coefficient 6 of a vertical cylinder as a function of the frequency of oscillation. In an actual viscous fluid, friction also causes damping, vortices and separation phenomena. Generally, these viscous contributions to the damping are non-linear, but they ‘are usually small for most large floating structures; they are neglected here for now. ‘The other part of the hydromechanical reaction force a2 is proportional to the vertical ‘acceleration of the cylinder in a linear system. This force is caused by accelerations that are given to the water particles near to the cylinder. This part of the force does not dissipate energy and manifests itself as a standing wave system near the cylinder. The coefficient a has the dimension of a mass and is called the hydrodynamic mass or added mass. Figure 3.9-a shows the hydrodynamic mass a of a vertical cylinder as a function of the frequency of oscillation. Tt appears from experiments that, in many cases both the acceleration and the velocity terms have a sufficiently linear behavior at small amplitudes; they are linear for practical purposes. The hydromechanical forces are the total reaction forces of the fluid on the oscillating cylinder, caused by this motion in initially still water: me Fy with: Fy =a — bi — cz (3.28) and the equation of motion of the decaying cylinder in still water becomes: (m+a)-Z+b-Z+¢-2=0 (3.27) ‘Wave Loads Waves are now generated in the test basin for a new series of tests. The object is restrained so that one now measures (in this vertical cylinder example) the vertical wave load on the fixed cylinder. This is shown schematically in figure 3.8-c.CHAPTER 3. BEHAVIOR OF STRUCTURES IN WAVES ‘The classic theory of deep water waves yields: wave potential: @ = stad sin(wt — ke) ‘2 cos(wt ~ ka) (3.28) so that the pressure, p, on the bottom of the cylinder (z = —T) follows from the linearized Bernoulli equation: wave elevation : (= Ea P= —P 5p ~ Paz = palae cos(wt — kx) — pgz = paCecos(wt — kx) + pgT (3.29) Assuming that the diameter of the cylinder is small relative to the wave length (kD * 0), so that the pressure distribution on the bottom of the cylinder is essentially uniform, then the pressure becomes: P= pale cos(ut) + pgT (3.30) ‘Then the vertical force on the bottom of the cylinder is: F = {96q0* cos(wt) + ag} 2D? (3.31) where D is the cylinder diameter and T is the draft. ‘The harmonic part of this force is the regular harmonic wave force, which will be considered here, More or less in the same way as with the hydromechanical loads (on the oscillating body in still water), this wave force can also be expressed as a spring coefficient c times a reduced or effective wave elevation ¢*: Fee =e-Ct with: ¢ = pod (spring coeff.) C= &F-Cocos(wt) (deep water) (3.32) This wave force is called the Froude-Krilov force, which follows from an integration of the pressures on the body in the undisturbed wave. Actually however, a part of the waves will be diffracted, requiring a correction of this Froude-Krilov force. Using the relative motion principle described earlier in this chapter, one finds additional force components: one proportional to the vertical acceleration of the water particles and one proportional to the vertical velocity of the water particles. ‘The total wave force can be written as: Fy = al" +00" + 06" = Fr cos(wt + enc) (3.33) in which the terms a¢” and b¢" are considered to be corrections on the Froude-Krilov force due to diffraction of the waves by the presence of the cylinder in the fluid. The "reduced” wave elevation is given by: Cae*? cos (wt) —Coe*Tw sin(wt) = —C,e*Tw? cos(wt) (3.34)3.1, BEHAVIOR IN REGULAR WAVES o— 7 Wor Frooney (na Figure 3.10: Vertical Wave Force on a Vertical Cylinder ‘The wave force amplitude, F,, is proportional to the wave amplitude, ¢,, and the phase shift ry is independent of the wave amplitude, (4; the system is linear. Figure 3.10 shows the wave force amplitude and phase shift as a function of the wave frequency. For low frequencies (long waves), the diffraction part is very small and the wave force tends to the Froude-Krilov force, o(*. At higher frequencies there is a small influence of diffraction on the wave force on this vertical cylinder. ‘There, the wave force amplitude remains almost similar to the Froude-Krilov force. Diffraction becomes relatively important after the total force has become small; an abrupt phase shift of x occurs quite suddenly, too, Equation of Motion ‘The addition of the exciting wave loads from equation 3.33 to the right hand side of equation 3.25, gives the equation of motion for this heaving cylinder in waves: (m +a)2 +62 +02 = aC" +0" + oC" (3.35) ‘The heave response to the regular wave excitation is given by: z = xc0s(wt+ ex) & = —2qwsin(wt +e) z rau cos(wt +£.¢) (3.36) Some algebra results in the heave amplitude: z 7 Zo _ er, __{o— aw + (lo (a7) {e- (m+a)u} + (bay and the phase shift: a } ¢ = arctan ¢——_——__" ith 0 Sex <2 (3.38) peice oS mth OS a Oe (8) ‘The requirements of linearity is fulfilled: the heave amplitude 2, is proportional to the wave amplitude ¢, and the phase shift cz¢ is not dependent on the wave amplitude ¢,.CHAPTER 3. BEHAVIOR OF STRUCTURES IN WAVES 3.1.7 Frequency Characteristics Generally, the amplitudes and phase shifts in the previous section are called: Bw) and Bw) amplitude characteristics erc(w) and exc(w) phase characteristics ‘The response amplitude characteristics #(w) are also referred to as Response Amplitude Operator (RAO). } frequency characteristics anv mei 56,6) Figure 3.11: Heave Motions of a Vertical Cylinder Figure 3.11 shows the frequency characteristics for heave together with the influence of diffraction of the waves. The annotation "without diffraction” in these figures means that, the wave load consists of the Froude-Krilov force, «<*, only. A phase shift of —m occurs at the natural frequency. This phase shift is very abrupt here, because of the small damping of this cylinder. A second phase shift appears at a higher frequency. This is caused by a phase shift in the wave load. Equation 3.37 and figure 3.12 show that with respect to the motional behavior of this cylinder three frequency areas can be distinguished: 1. the low frequency area (w* c/a), with motions dominated by the mass term. ‘Also, equation 3.37 shows that the vertical motion tends to the wave motion as the fre~ quency decreases to zero. Figure 3.13 shows the speed dependent transfer functions of the roll motions in beam ‘waves and the pitch motions in head waves of a container ship. Notice the opposite effect, of forward speed on these two angular motions, caused by a with forward speed strongly increasing lift-damping of the roll motions.3.1. BEHAVIOR IN REGULAR WAVES om one) Motens dominated by spring terms fo Figure 3.12: Frequency Areas with Respect to Motional Behavior Figure 3.13: RAO’s of Roll and Pitch of a Containership Figure 3.14 shows the speed dependent transfer functions of the absolute and the relative vertical bow motions of a container ship in head waves. Note the opposite characteristics of these two motions in very short and in very long waves. ‘The resonance frequency of a motion does not necessarily coincides with the natural fre~ quency. A dear example of this is given by (Hooft, 1970], as shown in figure 3.15, for a semi-submersible platform with different dimensions of the under water geometry. This geometry has been configured in such a way that the responses are minimal at the natural frequency.CHAPTER 3. BEHAVIOR OF STRUCTURES IN WAVES Figure 3.14: Absolute and Relative Vertical Motions at the Bow Figure 3.15: Heave Responses of Semi-Submersible Platforms in Waves3.2, BEHAVIOR IN IRREGULAR WAVES 3.2 Behavior in Irregular Waves ‘When information on the irregular waves is available, now the first order motions can be determined. ‘The wave energy spectrum was defined by: 1 Sc(w) «doo = 5 Cale) (3.39) Analogous to this, the energy spectrum of the heave response z(w,t) can be defined by: Sy(w) do = 520) mee sf eel Fee i Sc(w) - dw (3.40) " Ze) ‘Thus, the heave response spectrum of a motion can be found by using the transfer function of the motion and the wave spectrum by: 5,(w) = (3.41) ‘The principle of this transformation of wave energy to response energy is shown in figure 3.16 for the heave motions being considered here. ‘The irregular wave history, ¢(t) - below in the left hand side of the figure - is the sum of a large number of regular wave components, each with its own frequency, amplitude and a random phase shift. The value 4€2(u)/Aw - associated with each wave component on the w-axis - is plotted vertically on the left; this is the wave energy spectrum, S¢(w). This part of the figure can be found in chapter 2 as well, by the way. Each regular wave component can be transferred to a regular heave component by a mul tiplication with the transfer function z./¢,(w). The result is given in the right hand side of this figure. The irregular heave history, 2(t), is obtained by adding up the regular heave components, just as was done for the waves on the left. Plotting the value $22(w)/Aw of each heave component on the w-axis on the right yields the heave response spectrum, S,(u). ‘The moments of the heave response spectrum are given by: (3.42) tne = f Su) uP ds with: n=0,1,2, a where n= 0 provides the area, n = 1 the first moment and n = 2 the moment of inertia of the spectral curve. ‘The significant heave amplitude can be calculated from the spectral density function of the heave motions, just as was done for waves. This significant heave amplitude, defined as the mean value of the highest one-third part of the amplitudes, is: Jay, = 2+RMS = 2- itor (3.43)CHAPTER 3. BEHAVIOR OF STRUCTURES IN WAVES Sc, s,@ “\ irregular waves irregular responses time domain Se Figure 3.16: Principle of Transfer of Waves into Responses in which RMS (=z) is the Root Mean Square value. ‘A mean period, Tj., can be found from the centroid of the spectrum or a period, T., equivalent to the average zero-crossing period, found from the spectral radius of gyration: Team - 2% and Tye = 2 (AE (3.44) mz thas Figure 3.17 shows an example of the striking influence of the average wave period on a response spectrum. This response is the heave motion of a 175 meter container ship, sailing with a speed of 20 knots in head waves with a significant: wave height of 5.0 meters. For the wave spectrum with an average period of 6.0 seconds, the transfer function has very low values in the wave frequency range. The response spectrum becomes small; only small motions result. As the average wave period gets larger (to the right in figure 3.17), the response increases dramatically. A similar effect will be obtained for « larger range of average wave periods if the transfer function of the motion shifts to the low frequency region. A low natural frequency is required to obtain this. This principle has been used when designing semi-submersibles, which have a large volume under water and a very small spring term for heave (small water plane area). However, such a shape does not make much of a wave when it oscillates; it has little potential damping. This results in large (sometimes very large) RAO’s at the natural3.2, BEHAVIOR IN IRREGULAR WAVES poate derstywaie( syecra done none nt) TET eon Nowe (I) Figure 3.17: Effect of Wave Period on Heave frequency. As long as there is (almost) no wave energy at this frequency, the response spectrum will remain small. Figure 3.18 shows a wave spectrum with sketches of RAO’s for heave of three different, types of floating structures at zero forward speed: ‘© The pontoon has a rélatively large natural frequency and as a result of this signifi- cant RAO values over a large part of the normal wave frequency range. Almost all wave energy will be transferred into heave motions, which results in a large motion spectrum. An extreme example is the wave buoy, which has (ideally) an RAO of 1.0 over the whole frequency range. Then the response spectrum becomes identical to the wave spectrum, which is of course the aim of this measuring tool. It should follow the water surface like a sea gull! © The ship, with a lower natural frequency, transfers a smaller but still considerable part of the wave energy into heave motions. © The semi-submersible however, with a very low natural frequency (large mass and small intersection with the water line), transfers only a very small part of the wave energy; very low first, order heave motions will appear; it remains essentially stable in the waves. One can conclude that the natural frequency is a very important phenomenon which die- tates (to a significant extent) the behavior of the structure in waves. Whenever passible, the natural frequency should be shifted out of the wave frequency region.CHAPTER 3. BEHAVIOR OF STRUCTURES IN WAVES | Wave spectrum —+2 Figure 3.18: Effect of Natural Period on Heave MotionsCHAPTER 4 STEERING AND THE ACTION OF A SHIP'S RUDDER SUMMARY “This chapter explains how the relatively small force on the rudder produces 8 much larger force nc null that provides the centripetal force fora ship to follow a circular wack: Steering aaaesaat ic examined in some detail, including drift angle, pivot potnts and turning radius. The chapter ends with a brief description of types of rudder, steering machinery and autopilots. CONTENTS ‘What is meant by steering a ship 0 Circular motion. m1 ‘The action of a ship's rudder 12 ‘Turning circles 113 ‘The Williamson turn 14 ‘The effect of turning upon the propeller 4s ‘The pivot point in a steady turn 116 ‘The action of the turning forces 47 “The static pivot point ‘PI’ on a stationary vessel using rudder force U7 ‘The dynamic pivot point 'P2' in a steady turn 119 “The balance of forces in a steady turn 121 Directional stability 12 Directional instability 123 Directional stability and rate of turn 124 Handling directional instability 124 ‘The force on a ship's rudder in a turn 125 Factors effecting directional stability 127 “Trim and directional stability 127 ‘Hullform and directional stability 127 Ship's ahead speed and directional stability 128 Pull scale standard steering tests 128 The ‘pullout’ manoeuvre 128 ‘The Dieudonni! spiral manoeuvre 129 ‘The ‘zig-zag! or 'Kempf manoeuvre 130 ‘The ‘new course keeping’ trial manoeuvre 131 ‘The effect of changing speed at constant helm 132 Steerage way 133 Steering astern 133 The heeling effect during a turn 134 ‘Types of rudder 135 ‘Rudder shape and stall angle 136 Stern skeg or ‘deadwood" 136 High performance rudders B37 Paddle wheels and rudder steering 138 Rudder machinery - steering gears 139 ‘Steering controls on a ship's bridge 140 ‘Autopilots 1stpepe — WHAT IS T BY STEERING AS) may seem rather pointless question to ask what is meant by steering a ship, as most of us would thiak iat the answer is obvious but itis worth considering £4 ‘a moment. When a man is rowing @ small dinghy (or paddling a canoe) then he is trying ‘0 move the boat in a straight line. Every now and again, he checks the direction and, if required, adusts it by swinging the boat's bow to point at anew reading, However, this isthe boat being periodically almost stopped and manoeuvred to point in & new direction rather than being continually steered. ‘tis worth noting that larger oared boats, such as new ation ra gigs dont tx ich bu havea helmsman wa ee SS Gonrollable steering of any vessel requires that it rotates (¢r ‘swings) about a vertical axis whilst } ‘TRANSFER FOR ! 450 500 550 TRIALS SHOULD INVOLVE TURNS TO STARBOARD AND PORT. TO REVEAL ANY BIAS INV THE SHIP'S TURNING PERFORMANCE 90° HEADING ——>! I ‘CNANGE o DATA SHEET I 3? (THIS SHOULD INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING) 4 Es RUDDER ANGLE 2 ‘SHIP'S SPEED ze DRAFTS FORE & AFT g DISPLACEMENT SEA STATE $8 WIND FORCE & DIRECTION WATER DEPTH 8 TACTICAL DIAMETER 50 100 j4—— ADVANCE FOR 90° HEADING CNANGE HELM PUT HARD TO STARBOARD + © 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 ‘SCALE IN METRES MINIMUM TURNING RADIUS MAY MORE THAN DOUBLE IN VERY SHALLOW WATER‘THE WILLIAMSON TURN This manoeuvre is designed to bring the ship back to steering a reciprocal course down its original track and is an accepted standard procedure to follow when a person is seen falling overboard. Some ‘owners of new ships require it to be included in the builder's pre-delivery trials. THE MAN OVERBOARD” PROCEDURE AND WILLIAMSON TURN vi 10 STH ‘OF RECIPROCAL HEADING HELM IS PUT AMIDSHIPS TO STEADY UP ON THE RECIPROCAL HEADING 3s! m HELM REMAINS HARD TO PORT. LOOKOUTS KEEP SMOKE FLOAT IN SIGHT ALL THE TIME APPROXIMATE SCALE IN SHIP'S LENGTHS. ° 1 2 3 4 ee ee] VESSEL ON RECIPROCAL HEADING CASUALTY SHOULD BE CLOSE AHEAD. VESSEL'S SPEED IS REDUCED IN READINESS TO RECOVER THE MAN 2.-VESSEL 60° TO STARBOARD OF ORIGINAL HEADING HELM IS PUT HARD TO PORT TO REVERSE THE RATE OF TURN, LOOKOUTS KEEP SMOKE FLOAT IN SIGHT THE DETAILS OF THE PROCEDURE MAY HAVE TO BE ADJUSTED TO ENSURE THAT THE SHIP COMES BACK ONTO ITS ORIGINAL TRACK 1 :MAN OVERBOARD ON THE STARBOARD SIDE ‘SMOKE FLOAT AND LIFEBUOY RELEASED AS HELM IS PUT HARD TO STARBOARD TO SWING THE STERN CLEAR ALARM SOUNDED, LOOKOUTS POSTED AND E/R ON STANDBYTHE EFFECT OF TURNING UPON THE PROPELLER ‘The power for making a turn ultimately comes from the ship's propulsion. The drag component of the rudder force and increase in hull resistance in a tum simultaneously slows down the ship's speed whilst increasing the load on the propulsion, as the propeller experiences higher slip for its rpm. ‘THE INCI IN HUI Ty PELLER APPLYING HELM CHANGES THE THRUST AND SPEED FROM ‘A’ TO '8'IF THE RPM IS CONSTANT EFFECTIVE eM INCREASED HULL RESISTANCE THRUST ie RESISTANCE A tight tum can overload the engine at near its maximum power output as the governor increases fuel to maintain rpm and the engine exhaust temperatures soar. When the ship is at full speed, full helm should normally be used only in emergency such as to swing the stern clear from a person who has fallen overboard. | ‘The following diagram gives a possible explanation for any difference in propeller transverse thrust in port and starboard turns though the effect is variable and tends to be negligible in large vessels. TRANSVERSE THRUST EFFECT OF ARH, PROPELLER INA TURN (THE FOLLOWING VIEWS FROM ABOVE SHOW THRUST WHEN IT OPPOSES THE TURN) LARGE ATTACK ANGLE MAY PRODUCE STALL CONDITIONS BLADE AT T.0.¢, TURNING TO PORT ‘BLADE AT B.D.C. TURNING TO STARBOARD WHEN A SHIP IS TURNING TO PORT, THE PROPELLER IS MOVING TO STARBOARD. BLADES ARE OPPOSING THE LATERAL MOTION MOST AS THEY PASS THROUGH T.D.C, WHICH IS THE MOST SLUGGISH WATER FLOW IN THE WAKE AND SO PRODUCES THE LARGEST ANGLES OF ATTACK (ONTO THE BLADE, WHICH MAY STALL IN THIS POSITION. THIS WILL REDUCE THE THRUST COMPONENT OPPOSING THE PROPELLER'S SIDEWAYS MOTION. IF THE SHIP IS TURNING TO STARBOARD, THE PROPELLER IS BEING SWUNG TO PORT AND THE THRUST COMPONENT RESISTING THE SWING IS GREATEST ON BLADES AS THEY MOVE THROUGH B.C. HERE THEY ARE OPERATING FURTHER AWAY FROM THE HULL IN A FASTER FLOW. THE RESULTING ANGLES OF ATTACK ARE SMALLER AND LESS LIKELY TO STALL. ‘TRANSVERSE THRUST FROM A RIGHT-HANDED PROPELLER TENDS TO PRODUCE A SMALLER TURNING RADIUS TO PORT THAN TO STARBOARD THOUGH THIS WILL VARY CONSIDERABLY FROM ONE VESSEL TO ANOTHER, DEPENDING UPON FLOW CONDITIONS AROUND THE STERN‘THE PIVOT POINT IN A STEADY TURN ‘The ship's lateral motion outwards, combined with it simultaneously rotating about its vertical axis and following a circular track, produces a rotational movement about a point forward of the centre gravity. This is the ‘dynamic pivot poind but is often called simply the pivot point by many mariners and textbooks. A ship in steady turn conditions develops a pattern of outward drift angles for different points along its centreline that is greatest at the stem, steadily decreases to zero at the dynamic pivot point then turns inward and increases towards the bow. The forward position of the dynamic pivot point produces a net outward drift angle at the centre of gravity in the midships region. RIFT ANGI THE IC PIVOT POIN’ AVESSEL INA. Y > = TRACK OF THE BOW > = TRACK OF THE STERN —> = TRACK OF THE PIVOT POINT TB = ancte oF rier ar THe Bow [i = ance oF pret AT THE STERN & = ANGLE OF DRIFT AT THE C OF G ‘P2 = DYNAMIC PIVOT POINT G = CENTRE OF GRAVITY ‘VS = SHIP'S VELOCITY THERE MUST BE AN OUTWARD ORIFT ANGLE AT THE CENTRE OF GRAVITY FOR A INWARD ‘TURNING FORCE TO DEVELOP ON THE HULL. (ANGLES ARE EXAGGERATED FOR CLARITY) CENTRE OF TURNING CIRCLE = SHIP'S LENGTH ‘THE DISTANCE 'GP' THAT THE PIVOT POINT IS AHEAD OF THE C OF G = RSind metres IF WE TAKE A TYPICAL FULL HELM TURNING RADIUS OF 2 x (SHIP'S LENGTH 'L) AND A DYNAMIC PIVOT POINT THAT IS ABOUT 0.35 x (SHIP'S LENGTH 'L}) FORWARD OF THE CENTRE OF GRAVITY, Ten TW ORT ANGLE ATG" = Sin* BEE co’ sin? O35L = ap DRIFT ANGLES AT 'G' FOR MOST MERCHANT SHIPS ARE USUALLY LESS THAN 15°AT FULL HELM ‘THE PIVOT POINT IS THE ONLY POINT ON THE SHIP'S CENTRELINE WITH A ZERO DRIFT ANGLE 'P'IS FORWARD OF THE CENTRE OF GRAVITY AND INDICATES HOW FAR OUTWAROS THE C OF G HAS DRIFTED DURING THE BUILD UP OF THE ASYMMETRICAL FLOW AND CENTRIPETAL FORCE, ‘DEVELOPING AT TURN ¢ OF G SWINGS OUTWARD OF APIVOT POINT THAT IS. ‘TYPICALLY BETWEEN 10% AND 20% OF THE SHIP'S LENGTH AFT OF THE BOW Ship handlers use the position of the dynamic pivot point to indicate how far the ship will drift bodily ‘outward when the rudder is put over. Sea room must be allowed for this when making course changes in restricted waters. If possible, a vessel should approach a turn in a narrow channe! inside of the mid- channel track to allow for the stern to swing out further than the bow tums in. This is perhaps all the more important to remember when piloting a vessel with a forward wheelhouse as much of the ship is aft of the bridge and out of immediate view.THE ACTION OF THE TURNING FORCES ‘When the mass of a ship is subjected to the lateral force at the stern, itis accelerated in both a lateral and a rotational motion. If there were no resistance from the water to either of these motions, then both lateral speed and rate of turn would increase steadily for as long as the force was applied. ‘The initial lateral acceleration, for a given force, is dependent upon only the ship's mass but rotational acceleration depends upon the moment of inertia, which is determined by the distribution of mass. jm = MASS Mt em = MASS M2 FR smn = MASS Mo LATERAL ACCELERATION = mm = MASS Mc = MASS Ms XRFR = MASS Me T MOMENT OF INERTIA'T' = MR? ~ M1Ri?+M2R2? + MaRo? + M4Ra? + MSRs? + MoRe? WHERE MASS IS MEASURED IN TONNES, FORCE IN KILONEWTONS & DISTANCE IN METRES ROTATIONAL ACCELERATION = radians/s* ‘The static pivot point 'P1' on a stationary vessel using rudder force ‘The helm can be used even on a stationary vessel to generate momentary swings of the stem by giving short bursts of ahead thrust against the rudder and this is frequently done when manocuvring a ship alongside. We can use the above relationships to determine an equation for the ‘static pivot point P1’ position when a single force at the stern acts on the rudder to swing a ship stopped in the water. As we will see shortly, the static pivot point is nor the same as the dynamic pivot point. LOCATING THE STATIC PI TP rATIONARY VESSEL Fri i+ GPs ——} o “Te =X Py @ Go ~ IN TIME ¥', THE SHIP SWINGS THROUGH ‘0’ RADIANS SO 'G' MOVES DISTANCE GP1.8, SO, BY NEWTON'S EQUATIONS OF MOTION ;- S=GP1a" GP10" = O.5t7(LATERAL ACCELERATION) WHERE LATERAL ACCELERATION = 5 2 XaFe 0.51? (ROTATING ACCELARATION) WHERE ROTATING accELARATION = XSER - T so aP1"= FEE metres ¢ at = ARERE ae SEY radians SO DIVIDING 6P16"" BY 0" "SPY = gi metres WHERE I'= MOMENT OF INERTIA, M = MASS & Xx’ = RUDDER LEVER‘The static pivot point 'P1', (cont,) Of course, once our stationary ship starts to rotate around its static pivot point, resistance in the water flow builds up to limit the speed of rotation, which depends upon the immersed hull surface area and its distribution whilst the ship will also start to move ahead. We should take these factors into account if the motion extended over a period long enough to produce a significant ahead speed. However, we can assume that the pivot point remains unchanged for the short time period that the manoeuvre is usually carried out in. The equation on the previous page demonstrates that ifa vessel's moment of inertia, relative to its ‘mass, is reduced then the initial pivot point position moves closer to its centre of gravity, This is particularly so ifthe rudder atthe ster is a long way from the ship's centre of gravity and so produces a high turning moment. A long hull, with a high proportion of its weight concentrated around the centre of gravity, will almost rotate around the centre of gravity in response toa lateral stern force. Sailing yachts are the most obvious example ofthis type of vessel as about 80% of the boat's mass (including the lead keel) is situated near to midships whilst the mainly empty ends of the hull provide 4 suitable shape. Consequently, a stationary yacht will just about turn on its own midships axis. Mass and buoyancy distribution must fairly closely match in large vessels to avoid the hull being subjected to excessive bending stresses (though fully loaded vessels tend to sag because of a weight concentration amidships whilst the opposite is true when the ship is in ballast). This means that the ‘most significant factor affecting the mass distribution in a merchant ship is the hull's shape or block coefficient ‘Ca’. Fora given draft and displacement, we can have either a relatively long narrow hull ‘with a low block coefficient for a high service speed or a shorter hull of greater beam and with a high block coefficient a slower more economical speed. The low block coefficient fine lined hull will concentrate mass more in the midships region than the higher block coefficient full bodied vessel and. so 'PI’ will be closer to its centre of gravity. LOW cs VALUE THE HIGH MOMENT OF INERTIA FOR THE SHIP'S THE LOW MOMENT OF INERTIA FOR THE SHIP'S MASS, COMBINED WITH THE SMALL RUDDER MASS, COMBINED WITH THE LARGE RUDDER LEVERAGE Xk’ MOVES 'P' CLOSER TO THE BOW LEVERAGE Xn’ MOVES P' CLOSER TOG’ ‘Trim also affects the static pivot point, A stern trim moves the centre of gravity closer to the rudder whilst increasing the moment of inertia as mass in the bow becomes further away from 'G'. (The ‘moment of inertia is dependent upon the squares of the distances of masses from 'G'). Consequently a stern trim moves 'Pi' forward closer to the bow. A head trim tends to move 'Pi' aft towards ‘G' but to a lesser extent because although the rudder leverage is increased moment of inertia is also increased.‘The dynamic pivot point ‘P2" ina steady turn ‘The outward bodily push of the hull, due to the rudder force, is essential for blocking the water flow ‘on the outward side of the hull and so causing the flow to split asymmetrically. This creates the much larger inward force that provides the centripetal force to put the ship into a stable circular motion. In this, the rate of course change around the circle (ie. the angular velocity ‘o' in radians/second) ‘matches the rate of swing of the ship's head. The ship starts to rotate about the static pivot point 'Pt' in response to applying helm but its centre of gravity will move a certain distance outwards as it increases its outward lateral velocity, or ‘drift rate’, sufficiently to build up the pressure difference that produces the necessary centripetal force. In doing so, the vessel appears to rotate around another pivot point, which is also ahead of its centre of gravity. This is the dynamic pivot point 'P2’, which is shown ‘on page 116 and explained in the following diagram. For the moment, let us imagine an ideal water flow around a hull, that is symmetrical fore and aft so that the resulting hydrodynamic force acts through the centre of gravity and is perpendicular to the ship's ahead velocity. ESTABLISHING THE DRIFT ANGLE AND PIVOT POINT TO MAINTAIN CIRCULAR MOTION AS THE SHIP MOVES OUTWARDS AND SWINGS, SO THE LATERAL SPEED, OR DRIFT RATE" Vic'INCREASESANDA J py DRIFT ANGLE ‘de’ DEVELOPS AT THE CENTRE OF GRAVITY. PIVOT POINT DISTANCE FWD OF 'G' 'P2G" = ‘S’Sin’‘do’ & LATERAL VELOCITY OR DRIFT RATE ‘Vic’ = VoSin‘do’ WHERE 'Ve' IS THE VESSEL'S RESULTANT VELOCITY AT'G’ THE DISTANCE 'S' THAT ‘G' HAS MOVED OUTWARD AT ‘ANY INSTANT OF TIME 1S GIVEN BY THE AREA UNDER A GRAPH OF TIME/ LATERAL SPEED CONSIDER TWO SHIPS WHERE SHIP ‘A’ HAS GREATER LATERAL ACCELERATION, RELATIVE TO ITS ROTATIONAL ACCELERATION, THAN SHIP B* DISTANCE 'S’ < DISTANCE 'Se* FOR SHIPS ‘A’ AND 'B' TO SWING. 0 LATERAL SPEED OR DRIFTRATE ‘Vic! THROUGH THE SAME ANGLE do ‘SHIP 'B' WITH THE SMALLER LATERAL ACCELERATION, RELATIVE TO ITS ROTATIONAL ACCELERATION, WILL HAVE PIVOT POINT 'P2’ CLOSER TO THE BOW THAN FOR SHIP 'A’ The dynamic pivot point (P2) is further forward in ships with a high rotational acceleration, relative 10 lateral acceleration. This is the opposite to the situation regarding the position of the static pivot point Pr’. The position of 'P2', though, is determined by the sideways displacement of the centre of sravity, relative to the heading change during the establishment of a steady rate of turn, rather than the relative rates of lateral and rotational accelerations. The closer that ‘Pi’ isto the centre of gravity, the casicr it isto rotate the ship, relative to moving it bodily sideways, and the closer 'P2' i to the bow. ‘The dynamic pivot point 'P2' typically lies about 10% to 20% of the ship's length aft of the bow in many merchant ship hulls when turning at full helm, However, in some slower turning vessels it may be further aft, whilst in other fast turning hulls, it is further forward and can even be ahead of the bow.The iv "pat It is worth recapping all the equations of circular motion and drift angle so that we can see how the pivot point ‘Px relates to the midships drift angle, centripetal force and the ship's radius of tum as follows. ‘THE DYNAMIC PIVOT POINT ‘Pz’, DRIFT ANGLE AND CIRCULAR MOTION EQUATIONS SHIP'SMASS = 'M_ tonnes RATE OF TURN = ‘w" radians /second TURNRADIUS = 'R’ metres AHEAD SPEED = 'Vs' metres /second CENTRE OF CIRCLE —> = ship's SPEED vs" DYNAMIC POT POSTION ‘GP2'= RSinde metres |/ cewrRPETAL FORCE ‘Fe'= Mw V3 KN MIDSHIPS ORIFT ANGLE ‘de! = Tan’ 2S & SHIP'S SPEED 'Vs'= WR mis MIDSHIPS DRIFT ANGLE ‘dot = 2S radians || SO ‘Fe'= Mw?R oF ‘Fc'= MVS" & kN IDEALISED RESPONSE OF A SHIP TO AN ICREASE IN HELM RUDDER ANGLE IS INCREASED “( (CENTRE OF CIRCLE 2 —} = SHIP'S SPEED'Vs' SHIP'S SPEED REMAINS CONSTANT IF THE HELM IS INCREASED TO DOUBLE THE MIDSHIPS DRIFT ANGLE ‘de’ THEN THE CENTRIPETAL FORCE Fc’ DOUBLES, THE RATE OF TURN 'w' DOUBLES AND THE TURNING RADIUS 'R’iS HALVED. LE CENTRIPETAL FORCE ‘For'= M(un)PRI & "Fea M(2un'ER sO. ez= 2Fer ASSUMING THAT Te HYORODYHAC HULL FORCE ACTS THROUGH THE SHIP'S COFG This simple relationship between the midships drift angle, centripetal force, rate of tur and tuming, radius assumes that the ship's speed remains constant and hydrodynamic hull force acts through the ship's centre of gravity and so has no turning moment. In reality, real water flow invariably produces a hydrodynamic hull force that acts forward of the centre of gravity (see page 13) so the hull force has a turning moment of its own and this has an overriding influence on the ship's steering behaviour.Al FF A STEADY If the ship is at even keel and symmetrical fore and aft, then we might expect the hydrodynamic force to act through the midships point where the centre of gravity would be. However, the water flow suffers increasing viscous losses in the boundary layer as it moves aft with possible flow separation around the afterbody (see pages 13 & 44). Consequently, the effectiveness of the afterbody at ‘generating a pressure difference is reduced, relative to the forepart of the hull, and the hydrodynamic force acts through a point ‘A’, which is usually someway forward of midships and the centre of gravity. This means that it assists the turning moment and, subsequently, will increase the rate of turn, ‘When the helm is initially put over, the attack angle at the rudder equals the rudder angle, However, as the ship starts to swing and move bodily outwards, the rudder angle of attack decreases with the developing drift angle atthe stern and, consequently, so does the rudder force. However, atthe same time, the main hydrodynamic force on the hull is building up with the increasing drift angle at the centre of gravity and so contributing to the turning moment as well as providing the centripetal force. fr N THE CENTRIPETAL FORCE ‘Fc' iS THE RESULTANT BETWEEN THE HYDRODYNAMIC HULL FORCE ‘FH’ ACTING THROUGH POINT 'A' AND THE LATERAL OR LIFT COMPONENT OF THE RUDDER FORCE a -FITLL HYDRODYNAMIC FORCE ‘FH! = ‘Fe! -(~".') mene cenrmerasronce ‘fo! = MY = may aN tail G = CENTRE OF GRAVITY Fo. = CENTRIPETAL FORCE ON THE HULL f= NORMAL FORCE ON RUDDER fi. = LATERAL OR ‘LIFT'FORCE ON RUDDER > = sean THRUST FROM PROPELLER —> = HYDRODYNAMIC FORCES: —D = WATER FLOW ONTO THE RUDDER ‘Q¢)= RUDDER ANGLE dja) = APPARENT DRIFT ANGLE AT RUDDER S c= ANGLE OF ATTAGK AT THE RUDDER FLOW REDIRECTED BY THE PROPELLER | THE PROPELLER 'STRAIGHTENS OUT’ THE FLOW ONTO THE RUDDER TO SOME CERTAIN EXTENT RUDDER ATTACK ANGLE ‘a’ = RUDDER ANGLE ‘dr - APPARENT DRIFT ANGLE ‘d(a)' AT RUDDER AAs the drift angle atthe stern develops with the ship's rate of tur, so the angle of attack at the rudder decreases, though the screw race to some extent straightens out the flow, which maintains an angle of attack on the rudder atthe higher rates of turn. This effect will vary depending upon the flow conditions around the stem of a particular vessel. The centripetal force 'Fc' is the resultant force of the hydrodynamic hull force ‘Fx’ and the lateral or “if” component ‘ft’ of the rudder force. However, the farther forward of the centre of gravity that 'A' is, the tighter and faster the turn will be so the drift angle atthe stem increases whilst the rudder attack angle and force decrease, which transfers turning ‘moment from the rudder to the main hull force.DIRECTIONAL STABILITY A ship is said to be ‘directionally stable’ if some level of controlling force is retained by the rudder ‘hilt the ship is making a turn at any angle of helm. Such a ship will steer in a straight line in flat calm conditions with the rudder amidships and if a transient force momentarily swings it off course, the vessel will come to a new steady heading without any helm action once the disturbance has passed. The swing, though, will not create a estoring moment to return the ship to its original heading. Ifthe hydrodynamic hull force produces only a small turning moment (ie. point ‘A’ is relatively close to'G') the directional stability will be excessive, the helm will be heavy and the ship will be reluctant to alter course a all. However, as the hull force, acting through point ‘A’ is moved further forward then the hull force provides an increasing proportion of the turning moment whilst the rudder force and bodily outward acceleration diminish. Control of the ship's turn becomes more tentative as it will be quicker to develop a swing on applying helm, but slower to ‘steady up’ as the outward drift of the hull increases, which moves the dynamic pivot point forward closer to the bow. It is easy to ‘overssteer’ a ship with minimal directional stability by applying excessive counter helm. Over-reaction to this can lead to more excessive use of the helm and a cycle of ever increasing oscillatory swings to port and starboard, Over-steering can produce some embarrassing situations in confined waters. Ifthe hydrodynamic hull force acts sufficiently far forward to provide both the centripetal force and the entire turning moment required to sustain the rate of tum, then itis said to act through the ‘neutral ‘point 'No’ and the ship is said to have ‘neutral directional stability’. The location of No’, however, varies withthe rate of tur as resistance to the turbulent flow around and under the swinging hull will approximately increase with (rate of turn)” whilst the centripetal force only increases with just the rate of turn. 'No' consequently moves forward with increasing rate of turn and is generally about 1/6" (or 13%) of the ship's length abaft the bow when a ship is turning at full speed withthe helm hard over. Neutral directional stability is only likely to occur at smaller helm angles and lower rates of tum when 'No'is closer to midships. ‘Neutral directional stability transfers the turning moment completely from the rudder to the main hull force and so the outward controlling push of the rudder is lost. Lateral acceleration is very low compared to the increased rate of tun so the dynamic pivot point 'P2' is further forward than for a vessel that retains positive directional stability at the same rate of turn, IDITION OF NI THE DRIFT ANGLE AT THE STERN PRODUCES A ZERO ANGLE OF ATTACK ON THE RUDDER THE ATHWARTSHIPS RUDDER FORCE /S ZERO WITH THE RUDDER REMAINING HARD OVER Neutral directional stability only produces zero force on the rudder when the vessel is in a steady turn ‘and there must be a rudder force to start or stop the turn. If more or less helm is then applied, the drift angle at the stern will produce a rudder force to either accelerate or slow the turn down. The ship will bbe quick to turn faster, as only a small force on the rudder will be required to accelerate the rate of tum, Ifthe rudder is eased, however, the tuming moment of the hull force will be opposing the rudder force and the vessel will consequently be very sluggish to come out of a turn,Directional instability A ship is ‘directionally unstable’ if the centre of hydrodynamic force on the hull, point ‘A’ is actually forward of the neutral point ‘No’. This will increase the turning moment but there is no increase in the hydrodynamic hull force and the centripetal force remains unchanged. Ifthe increasing rate of swing is allowed to develop at a relatively small rudder angle then the ship will rotate faster around its vertical axis than its angular velocity about the centre of the tuming circle. The vessel will over-swing its intended circular track and begin to behave like a motor car ‘skidding’ when driven around a corner too fast. The dynamic pivot point moves forward of the bow as the ship develops an increasing sideways component to its motion whilst continuing to turn. This increases the hydrodynamic force on the hull and slows down the ship's speed whilst the rate of turn is eventually limited by increasing resistance to water flowing around and under the hull. The ship achieves a state of balance to make an exceptionally quick and tight tur, DIRECTIONAL INSTABILITY HULL HYDRODYNAMIC FORCE ‘FH! = ‘Fe’ + "f. WHERE CENTRIPETAL FORCE ‘Fc’ = MwV KN IF A SMALL BUT SUSTAINED ANGLE OF RUDDER IS APPLIED WHEN THE HYDRODYNAMIC FORCE /S AHEAD OF ‘No! THE RATE OF SWING WILL DEVELOP TO BE GREATER THAN THE STABLE ANGULAR VELOCITY w. THE SHIP OVER- SWINGS THE INTENDED CIRCULAR TRACK AND DEVELOPS A ‘SKID. THE INCREASING SIDEWAYS FORCE ON THE HULL, COMBINED WITH THE SHIP SLOWING DOWN AND THE RESISTANCE TO AN EVER-INCREASING SWING RATE, LIMITS THE RATE OF TURN AND SO ‘THE SHIP MAKES AN EXCEPTIONALLY TIGHT TURN, AS SHOWN BELOW. 7 INTENDED TRACK ‘THE VESSEL GAINS. SIGNIFICANT DRIFT ASIT SWINGS: CONTROL CAN BE REGAINED BY PUTTING THE HELM AMIDSHIPS AND ALLOWING THE VESSEL TO COMPLETE A 360° SWING BACK ONTO ITS ORIGINAL TRACK. STEERING CAN BE RESUMED WITH SMALLER RUDDER ANGLES APPLIED MORE FREQUENTLY BUT FOR SHORTER PERIODS An increasing number of new ships are directionally unstable under certain conditions of trim and are difficult to steer manually, as they will not follow a large radius cireular track at small rudder angles. Steady steering is only achieved by continually applying small short alternating helm actions to ensure that the momentum of swing is not allowed to build up. The rapid build up of rate of swing with any prolonged helm action can take the unwary very much by surprise and control of the steering is easily lost, which sometimes can only be regained after allowing the ship to complete the 360° turn.Directional stability and rate of turn ‘The moment required to swing the hull increases approximately with (rate of turn)’ whilst centripetal force increases with only the rate of turn so 'No' moves forward at higher rates of turn and Rudder control of a directionally unstable ship is regained at higher rates of turn. This is sometimes described as the ship becoming ‘directionally stable’ at larger helm angles, though the term used in this context is misleading, as it refers to the effect of the rudder angle on the ship's rate of change of heading rather than the ship holding a steady heading with the helm amidships. AT. SHIP 'B'IS ‘SHIP ‘8 BECOMES DIRECTIONALLY —P/€— "DIRECTIONALLY" ‘UNSTABLE STABLE come ‘SHIP 'B'1S DIRECTIONALLY UNSTABLE AT ‘SMALL HELM ANGLES AND RATES OF TURN SHIP AIS DIRECTIONALLY STABLE AT ‘ALL HELM ANGLES AND RATES OF TURN ° ° We RATE OF TURN'a" “— = TOTAL TURNING MOMENT, —— & — = HULL FORCE MOMENTS OF SHIP ‘A’ ‘Bt ‘SHIP '6' WILL MAINTAIN CONSTANT RATES OF TURN FOR GIVEN RUDDER ANGLES ONLY IF THE RATE OF TURN EXCEEDS ‘ac’. SHIP ‘A’ HAS CONSTANT RATES OF TURN AT ALL RUDDER ANGLES. Handling directional instability Despite its problems, directional instability does allow a ship to make tight turns that can be used to advantage, providing that the pilot or master is familiar with the ship's behaviour and plans an alter course to allow for this. When helm is first applied, the rate of turn starts to build up quickly, but with the pivot point so far forward, the swing is initially a sideways skid. Consequently, helm must be applied well before the ship is at the alter course position and there must be sufficient searoom to allow for the outward swing of the hull. As the rate of turn inereases, however, the steering stiffens up. tis now important to check the swing early and so avoid over-steering the intended track, whilst taking care not hold the counter helm any longer than necessary. HIP MAKING A. THE HELM IS APPLIED TO STARBOARD AT POSITION 1. TO AVOID OVER-STEERING THE TRACK, THE TURN IS CHECKED AT POSITION 4, BUT CARE MUST BE TAKEN TO AVOID AN OSCILLATING SWINGTHE FORCE ON A SHIP'S RUDDER IN A TURN The following diagram shows one way thatthe force on the rudder during a turn can be estimated if the positions ofthe centre of the hull force, point‘A’, and the neutral steering point ‘No’ are known, THE BALAN F IN A SHIP IN UNIF G = CENTRE OF GRAVITY No = POINT OF NEUTRAL STEERIN ‘A = CENTRE OF HULL PRESSURE d@ = DRIFT ANGLE AT'G' R= TURNING RADIUS (m) V = SHIP'S SPEED (mis) M = SHIP'S DISPLACEMENT —(t) Fo = CENTRIPETAL FORCE (KN) Semoe Fi = HYDRODYNAMIC FORCE (KN) ase raat ae Se eens ROR ORC a ‘Lx’ IS APPROXIMATELY 0.08 (SHIP'S LENGTH) X CENTRE OF CIRCULAR TRACK THE TURNING MOMENTS ABOUT 'G' ARE THE EQUIVALENT TO THE CENTRIPETAL FORCE 'Fo' ACTING THROUGH THE NEUTRAL STEERING POINT ‘No. SO TAKING MOMENTS ABOUT 'G’ | fu Cos (ks) u(r) + ( ESE +h) La = (Lae Lay Fo BUTIF 6S SMALL THEN Cosde ~ 1 HENCE Fi(LR+La) = Fo(Lx) where Fo = MY 80 (fucosy(Lr+Lay = MYLO uv Lx HENCE NORMAL RUDDER FORCE‘ = NE x Ta kiloNewtons IF WE TAKE THE EXAMPLE GIVEN ON PAGE 108, WHICH IS TYPICAL FOR A 150 m LONG MERCHANT ‘SHIP OF 12,000 t, TURNING WITH A 300 m RADIUS AT 8 m /s (12 KNOTS) AND THE RUDDER AT 30° THEN ‘Fe' = 1440 kN AND, USING THE ESTIMATES SHOWN ABOVE. OBL. O75LCos30° 80 THE RUDDER FORCE ‘fn’ ~ 1440 x = 17 KN OR THE EQUIVALENT OF 18¢‘The force o1 's rudder in ‘The calculations on the previous page rely upon a fair degree of assumption, regarding the locations of points ‘A’ and 'No', which will be considered in the following pages. However, the formulae and diagram also ignore some other factors, which would need to be taken into account to give a more complete picture of the forces involved in the turn. 1) The hydrodynamic force on the hull, shown in the diagram as ‘FH, does not include the normal hull resistance, which increases the magnitude of this force and gives it an astem component. 2) The combined swing and lateral drift of the ship during the turn increases the amount of water that is set in motion and dragged partially or wholly along with the ship. Le. the vessel making a turn ‘considerably increases its wake. This can be regarded as added mass' to the ship which increases, its effective, or 'virtwal’ displacement by up to about $0% in a full speed turn with the helm hard ‘over. This significantly increases the ship's hull resistance, 3) The ship's speed is the assumed to be its speed through the water whilst it is making a steady tun. ‘The ship's linear speed 'V’ starts to decrease as soon as the helm is put over and may not reach a stable level until the ship's heading has swung through about 140° so for the initial part of the tum, the ship's speed is continually decreasing. The force on the rudder may well be higher than estimated during this slowing down period when it also acting as a brake on the ship's speed. The speed reduction due to the turn is considerable and the ship would probably need to be moving at about 18 knots prior to putting the helm over for it to sustain 12 knots during the tum. 4) ‘The calculations do not take into account any environmental forces caused by wave action and wind, These can be considerable if the ship has a large exposed topside area and is making a tum in moderate to strong winds. ‘The situation is more complex than the previous page suggests and research into ship hydrodynamics, using model tests and real ship data, has led to the development of much more sophisticated equations than shown in the previous page. These are necessary for the computer modelling techniques that can be used in the design stages of a ship to predict the forces on the rudder and the ship's steering characteristics. Its, however, beyond the scope of this book (or my abilities as the author) to delve any further into the mathematics of this topic. rn (cont, ‘The practice of shipbuilding and design has produced formulae broadly based upon principles but with ‘empirical constants determined by experience and records of real ship data. Such formulae for the force and suitable area of the rudder are given in the 4" edition of ‘Reed's Naval Architecture for Marine Engineers’ and itis worth comparing their estimates with our example of the previous page. TI RUDDER AREA AND MAXIM cE LENGTH x DRAFT | 2 actor M+ WHERE C0 « RUDDER FORCE = 0.577AV*Sin'ér’ kN, WHERE 'V'= SPEED IN m/s & '@ = RUDDER ANGLE IF WE USE OUR EXAMPLE ON THE PREVIOUS PAGE WHERE THE 150 m LONG SHIP HAS A DRAFT OF 8 METRES, THE RUDDER ANGLE IS 30% A SPEED OF 6 m/s AND FACTOR F’ = 66, THEN RUDDER AREA‘A’ = 18.5m? AND MAXIMUM RUDDER FORCE = 192 KN RUDDER AREA ‘A’ * <70, DEPENDING ON SHIP'S SPEED This estimate of the rudder force is in quite good agreement with the previous page but we should be wary about the precision of either prediction as the previous page also shows that estimated value of the rudder force is very sensitive to the positions of points ‘A’ and ‘No’ If, for example, point ‘A’ were to be moved 1% of the ship's length further forward then ‘Lx’ would equal 0.07 x (ship's length) whilst (La’ + 'Lk}) would equal 0.76 x (ship's length) and the force on the rudder would be reduced by about 13% to 153 KN. ‘The positions of ‘A’ and 'No' and, consequently, the rudder force and ship's steering characteristics depend upon the huliform as well as the rate of turn. The above formulae, though, make no allowance for this as they were probably derived when ships’ hullforms were less varied than they are today.FACTORS E] NAL. Neither the centre of the hydrodynamic hull force, point 'A’ nor the neutral steering point 'No' are fixed in position for a single vessel. The location of 'No' depends upon the centripetal force relative to the ‘turning moment required for a given rate of turn hullform whilst the position of ‘A' depends upon the flow conditions around the immersed hullform and its fore and aft distribution of surface area. The relationships between these various factors and the resulting ship's steering characteristics are complex but we can make the following broad generalisations. Trim and directional stability ‘Both head and ster trims increase the ship's moment of inertia about its vertical axis, as explained on page 118, so the required moment for a given rate of tur is increased by trim and consequently point ‘No’ is moved further forward, relative to the even keel condition. More significantly, though, is that trim alters the fore and aft distribution of immersed hull surface area and consequently the position of point ‘A’. A stern trim increases the aft submerged hull area whilst decreasing it forward whilst flow under the ship's bottom is also more restricted by the deeper afterbody draft, so the pressure differential aft is greater than it would otherwise be. Both these factors move point 'A’ further aft and, consequently, enhance directional stability and increase the mininmum turning radius Conversely, a head trim will have the opposite effect so the ship's directional stability and turing radius are reduced. The high fot'sle, low aft deck vessels common in the off-shore industry are designed to operate with head trim and these ships can have particularly sensitive steering. The head trim is necessary for these ships to meet the minimum seaworthy transverse stability criteria but this could be kept to a minimum when the vessel is under pilotage in sheltered waters. DI POINT ‘A'S WELL AFT OF THE POINT’ No'SO___POINT'A'IS JUST AFT OF THE POINT ‘No’ SO THE SHIP NEEDS A LARGE HELM FORCE TO ONLY A SMALL HELM FORCE IS NEEDED TO MAINTAIN THE TURN AND THE SHIP WILL (MAINTAIN THE TURN BUT THE SHIP WILL BE ‘STEADY UP QUICKLY WITH MIDSHIPS HELM ‘SLOW TO STEADY UP WITH MIDSHIPS HELM es ‘A'MOVES AFT & STEERING IS MORE STABLE _ ‘A’ MOVES FWD & STEERING IS LESS STABLE block coefficient hulls have a relatively large moment of inertia about the vertical axis 50 'No' will tend to be further forward than for finer lined ships. However, very full-bodied hulls, ‘with a wide beam for their length, have a large wake (see page 53) with a centre of buoyancy forward of midships. These factors reduce the effectiveness of the afterbody at generating high pressure in a ‘tum so 'A' tends to be even further forward than 'No' and consequently these ships are likely to be directionally unstable at small rudder angles. Directional instability has consequently become an increasingly common feature in the modem designs for large bulk carriers and tankers.THE FULLER LINES FORWARD AND THE INCREASING THICKNESS OF THE BOUNDARY LAYER AS IT MOVES AFT CAN CAUSE CONSIDERABLE VISCOUS LOSSES AND POSSIBLE FLOW SEPARATION ALONG THE AFTERBODY. THE CENTRE OF THE HULL FORCE IS FORWARD OF THE NEUTRAL POINT 'No' AND THE VESSEL /S DIRECTIONALLY UNSTABLE. THE SWING OF THE SHIP DISTORTS THE BOUNDARY LAYER TO THE EXTENT THAT FLOW IS NOW DIRECTED THE WRONG’ SIDE OF THE RUDDER AND THE RUDDER FORCE IS REVERSED. ‘Ship's ahead speed and directional stability Increasing a ship's speed for a given rudder angle increases the centripetal force acting on the hull but the ship's response to this is to increase its radius of turn whilst tending to maintain a constant rate of tum, This is examined further on page 132 but if the rate of tum remains essentially unchanged then there will be a reduction in the leverage required by the increased centripetal force to overcome the ‘moment of resistance and 'No' will move further aft. A reduction in speed will, consequently, tend to enhance a ship's directional stability for a given rudder angle, though if the ship is moving too slow, there will be insufficient flow for the rudder to be effective and the ship will have lost ‘steerage way". EULL SCALE STANDARD STEERING TESTS. ‘Many of the types of specialised vessels that have been built over the past twenty years or so have different trends in their hull design and handling characteristics so a number of trial procedures have been developed to evaluate the steering characteristics of new classes of ship. ‘The ‘pullout’ manoeuvre ‘This manoeuvre measures the change inthe rate of tum with time after a ship's helm is retuned to amidships at the end of a turning circle test. In calm conditions, a directionally stable ship will eventually settle onto a steady heading but a directionally unstable vessel will retain a residual rate of ‘tur that ean only be eliminated by applying opposite helm. ‘THE PULL-OUT MAN‘ {E FOR DIRECTIONALLY STABLE o ‘AT THE END OF THE TRIAL TURNING CIRCLES TO PORT AND STARBOARD, THE HELM IS PUT. AMIDSHIPS AT TIME '0" AND THE DECAY IN THE TURN RATE IS MEASURED PORT 40 ‘SHIP 'A*1S DIRECTIONALLY STABLE ‘SO TURN RATE DECAYS TO ZERO eo) SHIP 'B' IS DIRECTIONALLY UNSTABLE 30 A RESIDUAL TURN RATE PERSISTS i é : é THE PULL-OUT TO PORT AND STARBOARD WILL NOT BE IDENTICAL IF THE PROPELLER AFFECTS THE SHIP'S STEERING. (SEE PAGE 114)The ‘Dieudonné' spiral manoeuvre ‘The spiral manoeuvre involves applying helm to port or starboard by a pre-determined amount, say 25°, and then recording the steady rate of turn, when this is achieved, the helm is reduced by 5° and the new steady rate of tur is recorded. The helm is then reduced by a further S* and, again the steady rate of turn is recorded before a further reduction of helm is made. This process is repeated until the hhelm is 25° in reverse direction at which point, the sequence of helm is reversed in 5* with the steady rate of tur being recorded for each step until the helm is returned to intial value. The ship follows a double spiral track such as the following diagrams illustrate, though the trial may require more complete loops in each spiral than is shown below if the vessel is slow to settle ata steady rate of tur. THE SPI EUVRE TRACK OF THE DIRECTIONALLY STABLE SHIP ‘A’ HELM TOPORT 25" 20°18" 10" 2s 20 18 10" ReunTOPORT ‘S790 TURN RATE WHEN A SHIP IS DIRECTIONALLY UNSTABLE BELOW A CRITICAL HELM ANGLE, THEN THE STEADY RATES AND DIRECTION OF TURN AT SMALLER HELM ANGLES ARE DETERMINED BY HOW THE SHIP HAS BEEN PREVIOUSLY SWINGING. PUTTING THE HELM FROM STBD 5 TO AMIDSHIPS RESULTS IN A REDUCED RATE OF TURN TO STBD WHEREAS PUTTING THE HELM TO AMIDSHIPS FROM PORT 5 PRODUCES A REDUCED RATE OF TURN TO PORT. THIS EFFECT IS KNOWN AS ‘HYSTERESIS’.The ‘rial ma In this manoeuvre, the ship is moving at a constant speed and a steady heading when the helm is put over a pre-determined angle and then reversed when the vessel's heading has altered by a set amount from its original course. This sequence of events is repeated over several cycles whilst the time of the events and the extent to which the ship's swing ‘overshoots' the fixed heading change after the helm thas been reversed are recorded. The manoeuvre can be carried out for different speeds, rudder angles and heading changes at which the helm is reversed. The 20°/20° 'Z' manoeuvre shown below applies 20° of helm that is reversed every time the ship deviates 20° to port or starboard from its initial heading. ‘THE 20°/20° ZIG-ZAG MANOEUVRE. PoRT 20 TIME (min) RUDDER ANGLE & HEADING CHANGE ‘TIME TO CHECK 2” swING. HELM IS PUT AT PORT 20 AND HELD UNTIL. THE VESSEL DEVIATES 20° OFF COURSE TO PORT AND THEN THE HELM IS REVERSED TO STBD 20 UNTIL THE HEADING 1S 20°TO STBD WHEN THE HELM 1S PUT OVER BACK TO PORT 20. THE CYCLE CAN BE REPEATED SEVERAL TIMES, THE FIRST ‘OVERSHOOT ANGLE WILL BE LESS THAN SUBSEQUENT OVERSHOOTS, AS THE INITIAL HELM WILL HAVE BEEN APPLIED FOR A SHORTER PERIOD OF TIME. A LARGE OVERSHOOT AND SHORT TIME CYCLE PERIOD INDICATES THAT THE VESSEL HAS POOR DIRECTIONAL STABILITY FOR THE HELM ANGLE AND SHIP'S SPEED OF THE TRIAL. THE HELM IS REVERSED AT SPECIFIC CHANGES IN THE SHIP'S HEADING, RATHER THAN, CHANGES IN THE SHIP'S COURSE OVER THE GROUND SO A SHIP'S SIDEWAYS DRIFT INCREASES WITH REDUCING DIRECTIONAL STABILITY, AS SHOWN BELOW, SHIP HELM PUT _ ‘STBD 20 HELM PUT HELM PUT HELM PUT PORT 20 STBD 20 PORT 20 ‘THE HIGHLIGHTED POSITIONS INDICATE THE POINTS OF HELM ORDERS WHILST THE RED AND GREEN ARROWS INDICATE HOW THE SHIP'S RATE OF SWING IS CONTINUALLY CHANGING, SHIP 'BY HELM PUT ‘stan 20 > HELM PUT HELM PUT HELM PUT PORT 20 STBD20 PORT 20 ‘SHIP ‘A’ IS MORE DIRECTIONALLY STABLE THAN SHIP’! $O IT TAKES MORE TIME TO RESPOND ‘TO THE HELM REVERSALS AND ITS COURSE MADE GOOD OVER THE GROUND MORE CLOSELY FOLLOWS THE CHANGES IN THE SHIP'S HEADINGIF PI IN f'we increase the ship's speed at a constant rudder angle, then we would expect the hydrodynamic force on the hull that provide the centripetal force to increase in proportion to the square of the ship's speed. However the drift angle is reduced, as it is inversely proportional to the ship's speed. Consequently, the overall effect of the change in would be to simply increase the hydrodynamic hull force in direct proportion to the inerease in speed. Now, if the speed and centripetal force are both doubled, then, in order to obey the equations of circular motion on page 120, the ship must tum with ‘twice the turing radius 'R’ whilst maintaining a constant rate of turn INCREASE SPEED AT ‘CONSTANT HELM IF THE SHIP'S SPEED INCREASES FROM Tow, rateorrunw'e’ =X ratan/s ‘The above argument suggested that the rate of tum is relatively unaltered by changes in the ship's speed and is only dependent upon the rudder angle but this is not quite true, because the rudder also experiences a halving of the drift angle with a doubling of flow velocity. However, the reduction of drift angle increases the angle of attack on the rudder (see page 121) so the rudder force will increase considerably. This simultaneously increases the rate of swing and the outward lateral velocity, the latter leading to an increase in the midships and stem drift angles. The hull force consequently inereases whilst the rudder force reduces until the ship follows a new tighter circular path at an angular ‘velocity that matches the increased rate of turn. Furthermore, the increase in hull force also results in an increase in turning moment as it acts forward of the centre of gravity so the extent to which the ship's rate of tur increases with ship's speed depends upon its directional stability. If this is relatively low, then the increased turning moment from the hull force will be dominant and the vessel will develop a greater increase in its turn rate with an increase in ship's speed. ‘A doubling of the speed at constant helm produces:- 1) An increase in the hull force that is more than double its original value. 2) An increase in the rate of tum that is more noticeable if the ship has poor directional stability. 3) Am increase in the turning radius that is Jess than double its original value. For ships with strong directional stability, the rate of turn increases most significantly with ship's speed when the vessel is at slow speeds. When such vessels are at higher speeds, the turning radius, will be approximately directly proportional to the speed whilst the rate of tum remains approximately ‘constant for a given helm angle.Steorage way Steering is initiated by the hydrodynamic force acting on the rudder when the helm is put over so steering control is lost if there is insufficient flow over the rudder and the vessel is said to have lost ‘steerage way". Generally, for most ships with a conventional rudder, this will occur at speeds less than 3 to 4 knots, depending upon the ship's loaded condition and the prevailing weather. However, inappropriate use of the propeller can disrupt flow to the rudder at much higher speeds, as explained ‘on pages 97 and 107, whilst a ship fitted with an active rudder, as explained in page 147, can maintain steerage way at much lower speeds. STEERING ASTERN {If the normal stern rudder is put over to steer a ship going astem then the ship will swing to follow the alignment of the rudder whilst bodily moving the hull sideways towards the inside of the turn. This prevents the quick build up of high pressure against the outward midships side of the hull as this is initially drawn inwards rather than being pushed out against the flow. The vessel will start to swing, whilst the centre of gravity initially continues to move predominantly along its original track. The swing develops an increasing drift angle amidships and the ship appears to pivot about the stern. A large amidships drift angle must develop before the hull force's contribution to the centripetal force is sufficient for the vessel to follow a circular track that matches its rate of swing and so normal steering control is lost. ‘THE BEHAVIOUR OF THE RUDDER WHEN GOING ASTERN [A LARGE MIDSHIPS DRIFT ANGLE MUST DEVELOP TO CREATE 'SUFFICIENT FORCE AGAINST THE HULL TO MAKE THE SHIP FOLLOW A CIRCULAR TRACK TO MATCH THE RATE OF SWING ‘THE SHIP PIVOTS ABOUT THE POINT CLOSE TO THE STERN THE RUDDER FORCE MOVES THE HULL BODILY TO PORT TOWARDS THE CENTRE OF THE TURN, WHILST THE BOW SWINGS TO STARBOARD. BUILD UP OF PRESSURE ON THE OUTER SIDE OF THE HULL IS SLOW AND A LARGE MIDSHIPS DRIFT ANGLE MUST DEVELOP TO SUSTAIN THE TURN ‘The rudder provides both the turning force and contributes to the centripetal force if't is used to steer the vessel astern and consequently steering is very erratic. Steering control can be achieved with a bit of care in small boats, which have a lot more power, relative to their mass, but is not practical with a large ship. The rudder is usually put amidships when the vessel is going astern to avoid damage and uncontrollable swings. One technique, though, that can be used to steer a vessel astern at slow speed is to pay out an anchor to just rest on the scabed forward on an up and down lead. It will drag as the ship moves astern and restrain the bow from swinging. This moves the pivot point further forward towards the centre of gravity and so the ship's swing becomes more manageable. Ships built to be controllable when going astern, such as the many ro-ro ferries that frequently "back up’ onto their loading ramp, are built with an extra rudder in the bow. This is locked in the midships position when the ship is steaming ahead and used simply for steering when going astern. Bow rudders are not so effective as the normal stern rudder as they do not have the benefit of the main propeller thrust being close by, but otherwise they behave as a normal rudder. The dynamic pivot point will lie about 20% of the ship's length forward of the stem when using the bow rudder and going astern.‘THE HEELING EFFECT DURING A TURN ‘When helm is first applied, the rudder force produces an imward heeling moment, as the force acts outwards and below the waterline. However, as the drift angles develop, the centripetal force generated by flow around the submerged hull acts inwards and below the ship's centre of gravity so produces a moment that causes the ship to heel outwards from the direction of turn. The resulting roll depends upon the ship's the rate of tum, ship's transverse stability and its speed (itis sometimes called aa'speed wobble’) and the heel angle in steady tum conditions can be estimated as follows THE FORCES ON THE HULL IN STEADY TURN! THE ANGLE OF HEEL IS DETERMINED BY THE TURNING OR CENTRIPETAL FORCE AND THE SHIP'S TRANSVERSE STABILITY (LE. ITS GM VALUE WHERE THE METACENTRE 'M'IS THE POINT THAT THE CENTRE OF BUOYANCY 8’ ROTATES AROUND AS THE SHIP HEELS OVER) a ‘TURNING, (OR CENTRIPETAL) FORCE ‘Fo’ = me KN SPEED="V m/s so (MY)ca= (wranoyeme (WHERE Iin/s = 2 knots) ss sg uence (“Y)ca = (9.81MTano)GMo Fo. Turning ~~~ SENTFE 50, (EL) on = (9.81Tanojomo SHIP'S MASS ="M" tonnes. a ‘SO THE ANGLE OF HEEL ‘7 ON TURNING IS GIVEN BY;- SHIP'S CIRCULAR x SA) TRACK, RADIUS 'R’ m TR * GM WHERE 0.81 mis? IS THE ACCELERATION DUE TO GRAVITY \L LEVERAGE OF NTRIPE ‘Fe! THE VERTICAL HEIGHT OF POINT ‘A’ THROUGH WHICH THE CENTRIPETAL HULL FORGE ACTS, IS NOT EASILY DETERMINED AND WILL VARY WITH THE ANGLE OF HEEL AND HULLFORM, AT RELATIVELY SMALL ANGLES OF HEEL, HOWEVER, IT /S USUALLY ASSUMED TO BE AT HALF THE UPRIGHT DRAFT HEIGHT LE. GA ~ KG -0.5 (UPRIGHT MEAN DRAFT) ‘The initial inward heel due to the rudder force alone is generally ignored for merchant ships but it can be significant in high speed, very fast turning hulls with large rudders, such as warships, particularly if they have quite tender transverse stability. The asymmetry of the submerged hull also increases with angle of heel and this will influence not only the height of point ‘A’ but also the effectiveness of the hhull asa foil, as it changes in a way that is less efficient for generating a lateral pressure difference. ‘Turning radius may actually increase slightly if the ship is very tender and the heel angle is large.TYPES OF RUDDER ‘The rudder shaft is known as the ‘stock’ and, in the past, rudders were pivoted at their leading edge and known as ‘unbalanced rudders’. Unbalanced rudders were always set in a'stern frame’ and are generally not fitted on ships these days as the torque on the rudder is increased by having no balance, whilst the vertical stern post interferes with flow over the rudder. If some of the rudder area is placed ahead of the stock then the rudder has a degree of balance and less torque from the steering gear is required to tum it, Usually, the rudder axis lies about one third of its width aft of the leading edge where the lift force is approximately centred and is said to be ‘semti-balanced and can either be supported on top and bottom bearings or they are cantilever and just supported at the top. The latter type is called a ‘spade’ rudder and is cleaner in lines but not as robust as the top and bottom support. ‘Twin rudders are almost invariably spade types. Some ships have a rotating nozzle around the propeller instead of a rudder. This is usually fitted to vessels working with ropes or cable over the stern as it creates a clear overhang and there is less. chance of fouling the ship's steering with ropes ete. ‘SOME TYPES OF CONVENTIONAL SHIPS' RUDDERS ‘SEMLBALANGED RUDDERS NORMAL FRAMED RUDDER SPADE RUDDER IARINER, pein eles Ml PLACING SOME OF THE RUDDER AREA AHEAD OF THE STOCK REDUCES THE TURNING FORCE THAT MUST BE SUPPLIED BY THE STEERING GEAR THE RUDDER IS PIVOTED ABOUT THE CENTRE OF THE RUDDER ‘UT FORCE’. THIS ALSO KEEPS THE LEADING EDGE CLOSE TO THE CENTRE OF THE PROPELLER RACE SO FLOW IS MORE EFFECTIVELY DIRECTED ONTO RUDDER ‘TORQUE ‘QR’ ON THE RUDDER STOCK ‘TORQUE ‘QR’ = RUDDER FORCE ‘fr’ x DISTANCE 'C A TRADITIONAL UNBALANCED RUDDER IN A STERN FRAME‘Rudder size, shape and stall angle Rudder area, relative to the ship's size, can vary considerably depending upon the space that is made available in the stern region and degree of manoeuvrability required by the vessel. The simple ratio between the rudder area and the product of ship's length x draft has a value of about 0.017 for ‘merchant ships and 0.025 for fast warships such as destroyers. Page 126 gave a basic equation to calculate suitable merchant ship rudder areas, whilst the classification society, ‘Det Norske Veritas’ stipulates the following more complex formula as a minimum rudder area for a given ship. ONvamMuM RUDDER AREA = +.[4 + 25(2)'] WHERE ‘L' = SHIP'S LENGTH BETWEEN PERPENDICULARS, 'B'= SHIP'S BEAM & 'o! = SHIP'S DRAFT (INTRODUCTION TO NAVAL ARCHITECTURE’ GILLMER & JOHNSON, U.S NAVAL INSTITUTE 1982) ‘The limited space around the ship's stern, particularly with regard to depth, results in rudders generally having a relatively low aspect ratio of less than '2'. Although the end losses reduce the pressure differential that ean build up for a given angle of attack, the stall angle is relatively high at about 25° (see pages 15 & 16) and the normal limit of merchant ship rudder angle is 35° to port or starboard, It will not usually stall at these angles because the developing swing and drift angle at the stern should keep the angle of attack below the stall point as the rudder turns in response to the helm being put hard ‘over. However, pre-stall cavitation may occur if the rudder action is particularly fast. sora ‘CHORD RUDDER FORCE 30° ATTACK ANGLE ‘The stern skeg or ‘deadwood! ‘The stern of a vessel is usually characterised by a deep narrow 'Vee' shape, which is known as the ‘skeg’ or ‘deadwood’ and through which the propeller shaft passes. This is important for directing flow into the propeller and for increasing the lateral resistance at the stem. The skeg will influence the steering behaviour of the vessel by moving the centre of hydrodynamic hull force (point A’) further aft and so increase the ship's directional stability, though in very large full-bodied hulls, the area available to the skeg at the stern may be limited.High performance rudders The tightness of a vessel's controtied turn is largely determined by how fast the rudder force can swing, the ship's head, as this reduces the flow's angle of attack on the rudder and so larger rudder angles can be achieved before the flow stalls. This can be achieved to some extent by making a larger rudder but there is only a limited space in the stern for doing this. Consequently a number of rudder types have been developed with devices that greatly enhance the rudder force at low rudder angles. These are known as ‘high performance’ or ‘high lift rudders. The rotating cylinder rudder This type of rudder incorporates a cylinder into its leading edge that can be spun in either direction by 1 drive mechanism that is co-ordinated with the helm action. When the rudder is put over to starboard the cylinder is driven around in an anti-clockwise direction (seen from above) to accelerate flow further over the low pressure side of the rudder whilst reducing flow over the other side. The cylinder is rotated clockwise when the rudder is put to port but, in either ease, the circulatory motion of the water enhances the asymmetrical flow and so increases the initial athwartships force at small rudder angles. The rotating cylinder relies on the same principle as giving spin toa golf ball to generate lift (See page 12) and is sometimes referred to as a 'Flettner rotor’. The articulated or 'Becker' rudder This rudder employs a trailing edge hinged flap that is tured in the same direction as the rudder when helm is applied and so adds ‘camber to the rudder section (see page 14), which considerably enhances its athwartships thrust again at relatively small angles of helm. ‘The flap rudder is not quite so effective as the rotating cylinder but it isa simpler mechanism and some rudders have been made with both a leading edge rotating cylinder and trailing edge flap. ‘THE ROTATING CYLINDER RUDDER ‘THE DIFFERENCE IN FLOW ‘VELOCITIES ON EITHER SIDE OF ‘THE RUDDER IS INCREASED BY ‘THE SPINNING ROTOR ROTATING CYLINDER ‘y= RUDDER ANGLE ‘THE SPIN OF THE CYLINDER ENHANCES THE DIFFERENTIAL JIN FLOW VELOCITY EITHER SIDE OF THE RUDDER AND SO INCREASES RUDDER FORCE FOR A GIVEN RUDDER ANGLE THE HINGED FLAP OR ‘BECKER’ RUDDER ‘THE TRAILING EDGE FLAP IS ROTATED IN THE DIRECTION OF THE RUDDER TO ENHANCE THE HIGH PRESSURE SIDE OF THE FLOW ‘THE RUDDER IS FITTED WITH END PLATES TO ENTRAP THE FLOWHis ince rudde High performing rudders can produce an initial high rate of tum and lateral outward acceleration resulting in a large hydrodynamic force on the hull. The ship turns within a very small radius but, unlike the ‘skidding’ motion of a directionally unstable vessel, controlling force is maintained on the helm throughout the tum. Ifthe rate of tum is sufficiently fast, the drift angle at the stern is high and the helm can be put over at large angles whilst the effective angle of attack on the rudder remains below the stall angle (see pages 121 & 136), The spinning rotating cylinder will sustain asymmetrical flow and its subsequent lift at helm angles up to nearly 90° degrees before stall occurs. The U.K. National Physics Laboratory that developed this rudder tested it on 2 100 t coaster, which could make 290° course alteration almost on the spot (i.e. turning with almost zero advance) when full helm was applied to the vessel moving at full speed. ‘The rudder and its mountings must be capable of withstanding the higher forces involved in such a turn. As with all hydrodynamic forces, their effectiveness is reduced as the surface area to displacement ratio decreases with increasing vessel size. For similar reasons, larger vessels also have a lower power to displacement ratio and so are less able to produce the propeller thrust needed to sustain such a tight tum, Currently, high performance rudders have only been tried on some smaller vessels but they could improve steering in larger ships if the rudder and steering gear are sufficiently strong and powerful to deal with extra forces involved, DIAGRAM PROPORTIONS ARE APPROXIMATELY TO SCALE THE INITIAL HIGH RATE OF TURN CREATES A LARGE DRIFT ANGLE AT THE STERN THAT KEEPS AN ‘ANGLE OF ATTACK ON THE RUDDER BELOW STALLING. A LARGE RUDDER FORCE IS SUSTAINED THROUGHOUT THE TURN SO THE RATE OF TURN IS ALWAYS UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE HELM PADDLE WHEELS AND RUDDER STEERING In 1845 the British Admiralty demonstrated the superioty of screw propulsion by conducting a ‘tug of. ‘wat’ trial between the paddle powered warship ' Alecto' and the screw driven ‘Rattler. This famous test demonstrated the greater efficiency of the screw propeller and, consequently, it is by far the most, ‘common type of propulsion found in vessels of all sizes. However, despite the advantages in efficiency and the resulting predomoninance of screw propulsion the same British Admiralty was still ordering side paddle wheel tugs one hundred years after their own trials that proved the superiority of serew propellers. The outstanding advantage of the side paddlers was their superb manoeuvribility at slow speeds due to their high beam to length ratio and outboard paddle wheels that could be driven independantly in opposite directions. The tug's head could be swung on the spot like a man rowing the boat, as shown on page 110, This was not challenged until the introduction of additional transverse acting thrusters to a ship's powered systems. A rudder, however, was still rquired for steering side paddlers when moving at normal passage speeds, as this is the only way to generate the hydrodynamic ‘turning force on the hull that is needed to make a controlled turn at speed,RUDDER [NERY-STEERING The diagrams below outline just the basic working principles of atypical hydraulic steering gear that is the most common powered steering found in merchant ships. STEERING GEAR IC PRINCIPLES OF A HY! TWIN HYDRAULIC TELEMOTOR LINES FROM THE BRIDGE HUNTING GEAR EQS = WAN HYDRAULIC LINES WITH ISOLATING VALVES SEBS = |y-PASS LINES WITH PRESSURE RELIEF VALVES THE HELM SIGNAL FROM THE BRIDGE MOVES THE TELEMOTOR, WHICH, IN TURN, MOVES THE PUMP CONTROL ROD VIA A SYSTEM OF LEVERS. THE 'SWASH PLATE" PUMPS TRANSFER Ol FROM ONE PAIR OF CYLINDERS TO THE OTHER CAUSING THE RUDDER STOCK TO ROTATE THE RUDDER. AS IT DOES SO, THE HUNTING GEAR PROVIDES FEEDBACK TO THE PUMP CONTROL VIA THE LEVER SYSTEM SO THAT THE OIL TRANSFER STOPS WHEN THE RUDDER REACHES THE REQUIRED ANGLE. EACH PUMP ALONE CAN OPERATE THE SYSTEM OR THEY CAN WORK IN TANDEM TO PROVIDE A QUICKER RESPONSE. THE TELEMOTOR SYSTEM CAN BE ELECTRICALLY DRIVEN RATHER THAN THE HYDRAULIC SYSTEM SHOWN ABOVE. lATIVE ‘THE ‘sWasH PLATE” OI YSTEM Te ‘SYSTEM VARIABLE DELIVERY PUMP. SWASH PLATE ROTATING PISTONS ‘TWAT FOLLOW THE ‘SWASH PLATE THE PUMP CONSISTS OF A SOLID DRUM WITH A THIS IS A MORE COMPACT ALTERNATIVE TO THE RAM SYSTEM. THE RUDDER STOCK WITH TWO VANES ATTACHED IS ENCLOSED IN AN (OIL FILLED STEEL CYLINDER, ALSO WITH TWO VANES FIXED. THE STOCK IS ROTATED BY THE 'SWASH PLATE PUMP TRANSFERING Oll. FROM (ONE SIDE OF THE VANES TO THE OTHER CIRCLE OF INDIVIDUAL CYLINDERS BORED INTO IT. EACH CYLINDER CONTAINS A PISTON WITH ITS ‘STROKE CONTROLLED BY AN ANNULAR SWASH PLATE THAT CAN BE TILTED BY THE TELEMOTOR ‘SYSTEM. THE DRUM SPINS AT A CONSTANT RATE ‘AND OIL DELIVERY RATE AND DIRECTION IS CONTROLLED BY THE TILT OF THE SWASH PLATE.Rudder machinery-steering gears (cont.) Although there are alternative arrangements to the steering gear outlined on the previous page, a hydraulics system is by far the most common type of steering gear fitted to commercial ships, though the ‘rotary vane" type is increasingly replacing the ram arrangement shown in the main illustration, ‘The simplified diagram of the 'swash plate’ variable delivery pump is shown because itis worth realising that the pump is continually running at constant speed whether the rudder is moving or not. Rates and reversals of flow are achieved by adjusting the tlt of the ‘swash plate’ rather than the pump pm so, like the controllable pitch propeller, it is very quick to respond to changing demands. It is normal to run the steering gear on one pump only whilst making full speed passages and to alternate the active pump on a daily basis. This not only evens out wear between the two pumps, running on one pump also limits the rate at which the rudder can be put over and so avoids a tendency to over-steer ‘when the ship is at speed and large rudder angles are generally not necessary. The by-pass lines and relief valves are to protect the system from damage and will open if the rudder suffers a shock load or a jam that results in dangerously excessive hydraulic pressure in the system. The minimum statutory requirements regarding the strength, efficiency and back up for steering machinery are given by Regulation 29 of Part C in Chapter II-1 of ‘SOLAS’ and published by the IMO. ‘Amongst other requirements, a ship's main steering gear must be capable of moving the rudder across from 35° one side to 30° on the other within 28 seconds when the ship i at full speed. This applies to any ship. regardless of size, and systems I have encountered on ships up to 20,000 t displacement are considerably faster than this, though itis a more demanding requirement for a large VLCC to meet. Steering controls on the ship's bri Up until the late 1960's, most cargo ships would have been equipped with the classic ship's spoked wheel of about one metre in diameter and frequently made of wood with brass fittings. This was manually turned to operate a small hydraulic servo pump that moved the steering gear telemotor in ‘much the same way that the brake pedal of a car operates the brake cylinders at the wheels. The gearing of the system was such that one complete turn of the wheel resulted in only five degrees of rudder, which might seem excessively cumbersome by today's standards. However, it was (and still ‘would be) very suitable for continuous manual steering on long full speed passages when the ship was to maintain a constant heading for most of the time. The ships generally had good directional stability and it rarely required more than a three or four of degrees of helm to correct the ship's course in good conditions. It was relatively relaxing for a helmsman, who did not have to continually worry about accidentally applying helm because he had moved the wheel slightly. He could sense the rudder angle by the hydraulic pressure felt against the wheel and the quickest way to put the rudder amidships was to simply let go of the wheel. It also discouraged over-steering, which would only produce a more erratic course and an increase in the fuel bill. Even when the ship was under pilotage and constant heim orders, the system allowed more time for a heimsman to notice and correct his error if he had miss-heard an order and applied the wheel the wrong way. This is not an uncommon mistake particularly ifthe helmsman is concentrating on correcting a swing and the order is heard amongst a background of other conversations and noises (V.H.F. traffic messages, the pilot discussing berthing arrangements etc). However, for the last thirty years or so ships have been steered on passage by autopilots that do not appear to suffer from distractions or boredom and manual steering is generally only used in port approaches and very heavy traffic. This shift to electrical control of one kind or another, combined ‘with modem digital electronics, has produced a great variety of steering systems on the bridge as the manual control is usually integrated with the automatic steering. A form of shrunken wheel is still probably the favoured device for the helmsman to use but there are altematives such as buttons or even tiller levers that move in the opposite direction to the rudder. Most systems have a manual over- ride to the autopilot in addition to the normal helmsman's wheel so there are at least three means of controlling the steering from the bridge. More than one accident has occurred due to mistaking which ‘one of these alternative systems is actually controlling the ship atthe time or how they work. The dangers of confusion regarding steering systems were demonstrated by the infamous grounding of the tanker Torrey Canyon’ in 1967,Steoring controls on the ship's bridge (cont. One contributing factor to this accident was that, ata critical time, the Captain was giving last minute orders to a non-existent helmsman as he did not realise that the ship was actually in autopilot and so precious time was lost whilst this confusion was sorted out. ‘The manual over-ride to the autopilot can be a particularly dangerous source of confusion. This is usually a small lever fitted to allow the officer on watch to make a course alteration in a hurry and some systems are ‘position controlled whilst others are 'rate controlled. If the lever operates as a position control, then it will move the rudder to whatever the position of the lever is set at and return to midships ifthe lever is put to the zero position. A rate control system, however, uses the lever position to determine how fast the rudder moves and the rudder stays at whatever angle it has moved to when the lever is retumed to the zero position. Rate control levers are generally ‘spring loaded’ ‘whilst position controllers are usually not but this is not universal and some systems even have a selector that allows a choice of which mode it operates in. ‘The over-ride usually must be selected by turing a switch but I knew of one system in which it could be temporarily engaged by moving the normal helmsman’s wheel without operating the change-over switch. Apart from the obvious possibility of someone doing this by accident, particularly at night in 2 darkened wheelhouse, there were other risks that perhaps were not so apparent. The system was fitted to a busy cross channel ferry, which was normally steered on autopilot except in the port approaches. (On one occasion, the helmsman took the wheel without the change over being made from autopilot to ‘manual steering. The helmsman thought he had control because the rudder was responding to his continuous heim actions. However, when he steadied up and left the helm amidships for a short time, the autopilot resumed control and immediately applied helm to steer the ship towards the last heading set into it. The unfortunate consequence was that the rudder went hard over just as the ship was passing through the harbour entrance and it had a serious argument with one of the breakwaters. The hull was damaged beneath the waterline by the collision with the breakwater and the vessel nearly sank. The autopilot was subsequently modified to remove this ambiguity. Such mistakes seem so avoidable in hindsight but the complexity of modem control systems combined withthe increasing tendency to turn the ship's bridge into the centre of communications and general management, is becoming a serious problem. ‘Modem electronic control systems also increasingly incorporate a uniform type of switch. This may be, in part due to the current fashionable desire to miniaturise electric systems as much as possible but it also allows the use of standard components that are often cheaper to manufacture. These frequently employ an array of identical diaphragm press pads and distinguishing between the various functions is becoming more difficult to do quickly. I personally believe that switches or dials that carry out significant actions, should, themselves, be significant in both size and shape and this should include the helm. A ship will nearly always respond to rudder changes faster than any other action, including engine movements, so I would also like the helmsman's position to be obvious and substantive to ‘match its primary importance in controlling the Autopilots Auto pilots have been standard equipment on merchant ships since the mid 1960's and are actively used to control the steering of many vessels for about 99% of the time they are at sea. They require an electrical input of the ship's heading, which is generally supplied from a gyro compass but can be provided by a ‘transmitting’ magnetic compass. The autopilot must mimic the responses of a good. hhelmsman to steer a reasonably steady course whilst keeping rudder movernents to a minimum so that the ship does not swing about excessively, which increases the fuel consumption. Steering is effected by the ship's state of loading, trim and the prevailing weather conditions, relative to the ship's speed and course, and it may take a helmsman a little time after he has taken over the wheel to get a ‘proper feel’ ofthe ship's steering. (HeImsmen usually pass on tips, such as'she is taking about 3° of port helm to hold steady’, when they are relieved at the wheel.) The bridge officer must similarly pay attention to the ship's steering behaviour so that he or she can adjust the autopilot settings appropriately and the following page shows and explains how to correctly set the manual controls that are found on a typical basic autopilot.Autopilots (con ATYPICAL BASIC AUTOPILOT HEADING MARK ADJUSTABLE SETTINGS 1 HELM SETTING DETERMINES HOW MUCH HELM TO APPLY FOR A GIVEN ERROR IN THE SHIP'S ACTUAL HEAD 2 COUNTER HELM SETTING FIXES HOW MUCH HELM IS APPLIED TO CHECK ‘THE SWING BACK ONTO COURSE 3. WEATHER HELM ALLOWS FOR THE LEEWAY THAT THE SHIP MUST MAKE ‘TO STEER THE SELECTED COURSE ‘THROUGH THE WATER 4. TOLERANCE SETTING DETERMINES HOW FAR THE HEADING CAN DRIFT ‘OFF COURSE BEFORE CORRECTIVE COURSE SETTING CONTROL COMPASS HELM IS APPLIED ENGAGED BY PRESSING DOWNON REPEATER 5 ispLACEMENT SETTING CONTROLS: THE CENTRAL KNOB AND THEN AMPLIFICATION OF THE AUTOPILOT'S TURNING TO THE DESIRED HEADING RESPONSE, DEPENDING UPON THE ‘THE SHIP'S HEADING IN THE ABOVE SITUATION See ee IS ABOUT10" OFF COURSE TO STARBOARD SO &_- RUDDER LIMIT PREVENTS RUDDER ‘THE AUTOPILOT WILL APPLY PORT HELM ANGLES EXCEEDING THE SET LIMIT ‘The helm setting controls the amount of helm to be applied for every degree that the ship's head is off course, 30 it should be increased when the vessel is moving at reduced speed or in heavy weather conditions. The counter helm setting modifies the applied helm according to how fast the ship's head is swinging either towards or away from the set course and so reduces oscillations about the set course by ‘killing the swing’ in the ship's head, Counter helm is generally set lower than the helm setting but if the autopilot is slow to apply rudder for a persistent heading error, then either counter helm should be reduced further or the helm setting increased. If, though, the ship is yawing about excessively because the autopilot is not reversing the rudder soon enough to check the swing, then the counter helm should be increased, relative to the helm setting. The weather helm setting is the underlying average rudder angle required to steer the set course whilst the folerance sets how far the heading will drift off course before the autopilot responds with helm action. It should be increased with rising head seas to allow for the natural increase in oscillations of the ship's head. The displacement setting should be increased with the loaded draft as this amplifies the helm and counter helm settings for the increased displacement. (Some autopilots have a ‘speed setting’ that similarly amplifies the helm action at slow speed). The rudder limit sets the maximum helm angle that will be applied and should be reduced to about 10° when the ship is at full speed but increased if the ship is at reduced speed. The autopilot should be set to hold the set course within reasonable limits whilst avoiding excessive use of the rudder. Helm and counter helm settings should not be too high and the tolerance setting should allow the ship to oscillate about naturally with wave action, If, though, tolerance is set too high, the delayed response to the ship seriously yawing off course allows a large heading error to develop before corrective helm is applied. The yaw rate at which the heading is moving off course will also be uite large so the corrective helm action will be considerably greater than if no delay was allowed. A ‘compromise must be made that avoids excessive reversals of the helm whilst limiting the extent of ‘yaw about the course heading. This is particularly trying for either a helmsman or autopilot steering in quarterly seas as the wave forees take some time to reverse their effect upon the steering and the ship can build up a considerable momentum in its swing if corrective helm is delayed for too long. ‘Adaptive autopitots’ modify their helm actions over time by continually updating a running history of the ship's course keeping performance, which is then fed back into the helm control so the autopilot, ‘learns’ to steer better.Autopilots (cont.) ‘The history reflects gradual changes in conditions but an abrupt change, such as a large course alteration, can confuse the system as the ship's previous behaviour continues to influence the autopilot to a diminishing extent for some time after the event. A helmsman must also lean the new feel of the steering afier altering course but he is likely to be quicker at this because he looks out of the window to sense the wind's direction and strength, and so can make a reasonable prediction of the change in the ship's behaviour. The adaptive autopilot usually must wait until the change in conditions affects its course keeping before it works out how to alter its pattern of steering, though it could be continually fed with relative wind strength data from an anemometer that then could give it predictive capability ‘Autopilots are particularly useful at steering directionally unstable ships that require frequent but short helm actions to hold a steady course, which is very tiring for a helmsman. No ship, though, should go into service with such poot directional stability that it can only be steered by autopilot, as such a vessel ‘would be uncontrollable in the event of the autopilot system failing. Autopilots have also become extremely reliable and, in my experience, faults in the gyrocompass or its follow up system are usually the cause of the occasional failures that do occur. With this in mind, itis ‘worth remembering the importance of regularly monitoring the error in the standard compass and always ensuring that its reading is clearly visible from the helmsman's position. The standard magnetic ‘compass is probably the most reliable instrument on the ship and even if it is out of adjustment, it will still indicate changes in heading. However, a failed lighbulb or miss-aligned mirrors in the viewing periscope can cause no end of problems if the bridge watch has to suddenly revert to manual steering ‘by magnetic compass in the event of gyro failure in the middle of the night We might think that this ‘earning ability’ of adaptive autopilots is quite involved and requires sophisticated computer processing but automated adaptive control is a lot simpler and less adaptable than it appears to be at first sight. Most automated control is run by fairly simple logic that the system follows scrupulously without deviation and we will consider this further in the next chapter.CHAPTER 5 IMPROVING SLOW SPEED MANOEUVRABILITY AND CONTROL SUMMARY ‘This chapter describes the ways to improve a ship's manocuvrability, particularly a low speeds, by using various screw arrangements and lateral thrusters that can be co-ordinated into a single joystick control. The remaining bulk of the chapter is given over to examining dynamic positioning computer controlled systems, with particular regard to the ship's manoeuvrability. CONTENTS Vertical axis or cycloidal propellers 146 Active rudders 147 Auxiliary thrusters 148 ‘Multiple serew arrangements 149 ‘Twin screw, twin rudder manoeuvrability 150 Turning a twin screw ship 'short round’ 130 ‘The steering ability of a twin screw ship on one engine 150 ‘Moving a twin screw ship with a bow thruster bodily sideways 151 Rudder propellers or ‘azi-pods' 182 Integrating the control of overall thrust 153 Measuring thruster power by bollard pull 153 Dynamie positioning systems 154 Some basic principles of automated control 155 Motion stability and steering control systems 156 Automated control and DP 156 Model control 159 Filtering the inputted position data 160 Filtering out wave induced motion from the inputted position data 162 Filtering out effects of roll, pitch and yaw from inputted position data 164 Filtering the heading error input data 168 The difference between Kalman and control gai 168 The basic operating modes of a DP system 165 DP and a ship's propulsion 167 ‘The position monitoring equipment (PME!s) 168 Individual PME weightings in a fix 169 ‘The DP monitor displays and main settings 170 Operating the ship through DP 171 Moving a ship by DP control 171 Heading changes by DP control in ‘The ship's heading whilst holding station 174 ‘The minimum power mode 175 ‘Tracking an ROV using DP 175 Laying out seabed tackle or 176 Ploughing in submarine cables or pipelines using DP control 176 "Track follow’ and ploughing 178 Positional control with rudder steering alone 180 Concluding comments on automated positional control 181YERTICAL AXIS OR CYCLOIDAL PROPELLERS The ‘eycloida? or ‘vertical axis" propeller is an alternative to the conventional screw and rudder that provides both propulsion and steering whilst enhancing a vessel's low speed manoeuvrability. These are often known as 'Voith-Schneider' ot ‘Kirsten-Boeing’ propellers and consist ofa disc rotating at constant speed with four or more high aspect ratio vertical foils arranged around its circumference. As the foils move around with the rotating disc, they are also turned about their axis by telescopic control rods to produce a ‘pitch angle when they are moving at 90° to the desired direction of generated thrust. The blades are then ‘feathered! to give a zero angle of attack when they are moving in line with the thrust. The inner ends of the telescopic arms follow a control ring that can be offset from the centre of, the disc to produce the both required thrust direction and power. Cycloidal propellers actin a similar way to a man sculling a boat along by moving and twisting a single oar back and forth across the stern. A vessel is typically fitted with a unit in the bow and another in the stem. Normal full speed steering is achieved by changing the thrust direction of the trailing unit so there is no rudder. The units can be used as directional thrusters for slow speed manoeuvring so the system is highly versatile. Its power and efficiency, though, is limited, as each foil is only producing thrust over two relatively short fractions of its rotation cycle and so is not as efficient as the screw propeller. Voith Schneider propellers are particularly suited for harbour tugs or short passage ‘double ended’ ferries that can be driven equally well in either direction. ROPELLE! IF A ‘DOUBLE ENDED’ Fi CIRCULAR, FLOW RESULTAN FLOW VERTICAL HIGH ASPECT RATIO FOILS ARE: ROTATED AT CONSTANT OVERALL ‘SPEED BY THE aT PROPULSION MOTOR THRUST IS CREATED BY ROTATING A DISC WITH VERTICAL FOILS ARRANGED AROUND THE ITS CIRCUMFERENCE. THE FOILS, HOWEVER ARE MECHANICALLY TURNED ON THEIR AXIS BY RIGID TELESCOPIC ARMS TO PRODUCE THRUST WHEN THEY ARE MOVING PERPENDICULAR TO THE RESULTING FLOW AND THEN FEATHERED TO MINIMISE DRAG WHEN MOVING WITH OR AGAINST THE FLOW. THE INNER ENDS OF THE TELESCOPIC ARMS FOLLOW AROUND A CONTROL RING THAT HAS AN ADJUSTABLE OFFSET FROM THE CENTRE OF THE DISC. THE DIRECTION AND EXTENT OF THIS OFFSET DETERMINES THE DIRECTION AND AMOUNT OF THRUST. ‘THE VERTICAL AXIS PROPELLER IS LESS EFFICIENT THAN A CONVENTIONAL SCREW PROPELLERACTIVE RUDDERS ‘An active rudder is one that has a small propeller thruster unit built into it to maintain flow over it at very low speed. It differs from the high performance rudders, described page 137, as an active rudder is not designed to operate at full speed. There is limit to the power output of the auxiliary thruster and if the flow velocity is excessive, it will be driving the thruster’s propeller, rather than the other way round and the thruster propeller is "backloaded’, (see page 98). This will simply ereate extra drag, reduce the flow speed over the rudder and probably damage the thruster's hydraulic motor. ‘The one vessel that I have experience of that was fitted with one of these rudders, was a single screw cable ship with a full speed of 13 knots. The active rudder control was integrated with the log so that it shut down if the ship's speed exceeded 6 knots. The vessel could, however, maintain steerage way down to speeds of less than 1 knot in head seas ifthe rudder thruster was operating, whereas without it, steerage was lost at just under 3 knots. ‘The active rudder in the vessel above was incorporated into an integrated control system, which combined the main controllable pitch propeller with a retractable azimuth (ie. one that can be rotated through 360° ) bow thruster and a rudder that could be rotated through 90°. If, however, the rudder angle exceeded 35°, the system automatically set the main propeller pitch to zero in order to prevent ‘exposing the rudder mountings tothe force of the main ahead thrust. The active rudder was primarily intended to act as a semi-azimuth thruster at the vessel's stern for delicate manoeuvring at very slow speeds during submarine cable repair operations. ‘The ship was built in the mid 1970's and, judged by today’s standards, the system was very primitive ‘and under powered, though the ship successfully operated in the relatively hostile tidal and weather conditions around the U.K. coast for twenty five years. F iMUTH THRU! |EMENT (AS FITTED TO A SUBMARINE TELEPHONE CABLE REPAIR SHIP IRIS’, BUILT 1975) PORT BUT MAIN PROPELLER PITCH MUST BE PUT TO ZERO AT ANGLES BEYOND 35°AUXILIARY THRUSTERS In the 1960's, relatively small transverse thruster units started to be fitted to merchant ships, primarily to assist manoeuvring in sheltered waters, such as berthing alongside. The growth of the off-shore oil industry in the North Sea brought about the need for vessels that could hold position in difficult ‘weather conditions whilst working alongside oil platforms. This resulted in ships being equipped with an increasing number of powerful thrusters at the bow and stern ‘The most common type is the 'twrtef thruster, which consists of propeller unit being mounted in an ‘open transverse tunnel at the bow or stern. The propeller operates in uniform conditions of flow and tip clearance so the blade width can be increased right out tothe tip and end losses around the tip are eliminated (see page 84). The power is generally supplied by an electric motor but hydraulic drive has also been employed. In the past, direction and speed control was only possible with direct current (a.c.) supply and, as this became an increasingly unpopular form of shipboard electrical power, thrusters were fitted with controllable pitch propellers driven by constant speed alternating current, or .c,, motors. However, since the late 1980's, a. technology has developed ‘thyrister’ control, which allows speed and direction control to be applied to a.c. motors. This improves the thruster’ ability to ‘operate with equal effect in either direction. Azimuth thrusters that can produce thrust in any direction are an altemative to tunnel thrusters. These are frequently a propeller unit mounted on the bottom of a retractable vertical leg that can be rotated through 360°, as shown on the previous page, and looks a bit like an outboard motor. Power is usually supplied by an electric motor inside the hull, so a vertical propeller shaft passes down through the leg into a gearbox at the bottom. As with the tunnel thruster, speed and direction control can either be achieved with a c.p. propeller or control of the motor. Some vessels actually replace the conventional screw and rudder arrangement with two or three very powerful such non-retractable azimuth thrusters in the stern recess so steering is achieved by rotating the thrusters (see pages 152 & 154) The ‘gilljef is an azimuth thruster that works quite differently and is flush fitting with the hull. A vertical T’ shaped tunnel is built into the hull of the vessel at the bow or stern centreline and a rotatable louvered round disc (or gill plate) is fitted at the bottom. A high-speed pump fitted inside the tunnel draws water in through the horizontal cross tunnel at the top to be forced out through the slats at the bottom. This directs the thrust in whatever direction the gill plate is set in. The thrust stream has @ downward component as well as a horizontal direction so some of the power is lost. TYPES OF THRUSTERS ‘TUNNEL THRUSTER PROVIDES THRUST TO PORT OR STARBOARD PROVIDES THRUST IN ANY DIRECTION BY ROTATING THE GILL PLATEAw thrusters (cont Transverse thrusters are only really effective when the ship is stopped in the water or moving at very ow speeds. When the ship is moving, the ejected water jet increasingly attaches itself to the flow along the hull downstream of the outlet and the thruster output decreases. This is the 'Coands’ effect and could only be overcome if the thruster tunnel extended beyond the boundary layer around the hull. Tests show that effective thruster power decreases by 30% to 40% at speeds as low as 2 knots and is negligible when the ship is moving much faster than 3 knots. ‘THE ‘COANDA’ EFFECT OF MOVING AHEAD UPON A LATERAL TUNNEL THRUSTER vi st THE JET FROM THE THRUSTER |S EJECTED PART OF THE JET ATTACHES ITSELF TO THE FLOW CLEANLY INTO STILL WATER ALONG THE ALONG THE HULL AND SO THRUST DECREASES ‘SHIP'S SIDE SO THERE IS FULL THRUST MARKEDLY WITH SHIP'S SPEED Bow thrusters are relatively ineffective at steering a ship going astern if its speed is much greater than three knots. It is better to fit a bow rudder to ships that are regularly steered whilst going astern at higher speeds, such as some ferries that regularly have a long astern approach to their a berth ‘The turbulence created by water flowing across the tunnel also means that the hull resistance increases ifa ship is equipped with lateral thrusters, though this can be reduced by fairing the leading tunnel edges. MULTIPLE SCREW ARRANGEMENTS ‘Many ships have been built with multiple screws to allow for more propulsion power than might be possible with a single larger screw. In the past, twin screw ships were frequently fitted with a single rrudder on the centretine, which is such a poor position, regarding flow, that it results in worse ‘manoeuvrability than isthe ease ofa single screw vessel. A single centreline rudder can be effective in triple serew ships but twin serew vessels require twin rudders for good manoeuvrability MULTIPLE SCREW ARRANGI WITHA, DE TRIPLE SCREW, SINGLE RUDDER A ENGoTRRATAGR OEE ARRANGEMENT THAT WAS AN ARRANGEMENT EMPLOYED IN LARGE POPULAR UP TO THE 1960'S. IT RESULTS IN FAST VESSELS TO PROVIDE SUFFICIENT RELATIVELY POOR FLOW OVER THE RUDDER POWER. THE CENTRE SCREW MAINTAINS ‘AND POOR LOW SPEED MANOEUVRABILITY FLOW OVER THE RUDDERTWIN SCREW, TWIN RUDDER MANOEUVRABILITY ‘Turning a twin screw ship ‘short rot ‘When turning a twin screw, twin rudder vessel short round, full helm is applied to the rudder on the side of the ahead turning screw. The rudder in the aster going flow on the other side will be much less effective and its position is less critical. However, more ships are fitted with rudders that can be ‘split, i.e. operated independently. In this case, both the rudders can be tuned inwards. ‘Twin screw arrangements always consist ofa right handed and left handed propeller, which allows any transverse thrust on the aster propeller to assist the ship's swing when turning short round. This ‘means that propellers are ‘outward turning’ from the top for ships with fixed pitch propellers that must be reversed to provide astern thrust. Uward turning’ propellers are fitted ifthe ship has controllable pitch propellers that always turn in the same direction, A ITCH. in > SHIP'S BOW TURNS TO PORT WHILST THE STERN. ‘SWINGS TO STARBOARD loo 000 rece rem AnEADAY > = ancAD THRUST RUDDERS ARE’SPLIT. > = ASTERN THRUST {AND TURNED INBOARD THE RUDDERS, PROPELLERS AND HULL ALL RESPOND MORE EFECTIVELY TO AHEAD THRUST SO THE SHIP IS LIKELY TO CREEP AMEAD DURING & SWING NORMAL DIRECTION OF Pi WHEN FIXED PITCH PROPELLERS CONTROLLABLE PITCH PROPELLERS ‘OUTWARD TURNING SCREWS INWARD TURNING PROPELLERS PROPELLER DIRECTIONS ARE ARRANGED TO ENSURE THAT ANY ASTERN TRANSVERSE THRUST EFFECT ASSISTS THE VESSEL IN TURNING SHORT ROUND he of a twin serew ship on. ‘Some twin serew vessels steer quite well on one engine with both rudders acting in tandem, whilst ‘others in the same situation are poor course keepers. There are several possible reasons for this, one being that there is little flow over the rudder immediately astern of the stopped propeller. This could either be due to the stationary screw blanking one of the rudders or poor flow around the ster in general, In either case, the effective rudder area would be decreased.‘The steering ability of a twin screw ship on one engine (cont. Propeller shaft alignment is another factor that will effect the steering ability on one engine. Ifthe shafs are aligned to point slightly outboard the leverage due to the offset of the propeller will be reduced and the hydrodynamic force on the hull produced by a slight asymmetrical flow will create an ‘opposing moment. This will allow the ship to maintain a steady course on one engine without excessive rudder bias but will reduce the vessel's ability to swing the stern whilst turning short round, ‘or moving bodily sideways. SHAFT ALIGNMENT AND SINGLE ENGINE STEERING ON A TWIN SCREW SHIP IAFTS P, L WITH THE CENTRELINI v ‘THE SHAFT OFFSETS CREATE A TURNING MOMENT ABOUT THE C OF G WITH A LEVERGE OF > y. OFFSET LEVERAGE % |S REDUCED AND THE SLIGHT ASYMMETRICAL FLOW CREATES A COUNTER MOMENT THAT SHOULD ALLOW THE SHIP TO STEER ON ONE ENGINE WITHOUT EXCESS RUDDER Moving a twin screw ship with a bow thruster bodily sideways We can bodily ‘walk’ a twin screw, twin rudder vessel sideways, if tis fitted with a bow thruster. This is achieved by balancing the turning moment produced in the ‘short round! manocuvre with the ‘opposing moment of the transverse thrust from the bow thruster. The net result is thatthe ship should ‘move bodily sideways whilst maintaining a constant heading. RESULTANT LATERAL FORCE, ‘THE STARBOARD SCREW IS GOING AHEAD WHILST THE PORT SCREW IS TURNING ASTERN AND ‘THE BOW THRUSTER IS THRUSTING TO STARBOARD. THE VESSEL IS MOVING TO STARBOARDRUDDER PROPELLERS OR 'AZI-PODS' The twin ‘rudder-propeller’ arrangement utilises azimuth thrusters as the ship's main propulsion and so dispenses with the need for conventional rudders altogether by steering through rotating thrusters. As stated previously, this type of propulsion has been employed on some tugs and offshore support vessels for some time but is now being used on increasingly large ships, such as several of the modern generation of large cruise liners. It has the advantage of being able to direct full effective thrust at any angle to the vessel's fore and aff line and so reduces the ship's turning radius at speed, even more so than the high performance rudders described on pages 137 and 138. The ship can also be moved bodily sideways or tured ‘short around! very easily if it is also fitted with bow thrusters as the main propulsion can be used to produce lateral thrust Power transmission to the azimuth propellers can be by a mechanical '2’ drive in which the shaft from the main engine drives a vertical shaft inside the azimuth leg through bevel gears whilst a similar gear arrangement at the bottom of the vertical shaft then drives the propeller shaft. This, however, is quite a complex system, as it must allow control of both the power and the direction of thrust, so the propeller is more commonly driven by a variable speed electric motor. This may be mounted on the top of the azimuth unit inside the lull but this arrangement still consists of bevel gears and a vertical shaft inside the leg. It is becoming increasingly common to dispense with these by mounting the motor inside the propeller fairing, or ‘pod’ at the bottom of the leg. This is called an 'azi-pod' and electrical power is transmitted to the motor through slip rings on the top of the unit inside the hull, which allows for the steering system to rotate the leg. The propeller may either be shrouded by a Kort nozzle, as shown on page 84, or left open, as shown in the diagram below. ‘TWIN AZI-POD PROPULSION FITTED TO A CRUISE LINER TUNNEL BOW THRUSTERS 7 ‘TWIN AZI-POD PROPELLER UNITS. ‘SKEG FITTED BETWEEN THE AZI-PODS CONTAINING ELECTRIC MOTORS TO ENSURE DIRECTIONAL STABILITY THE VESSEL IS STEERED BY ROTATING THE AZI-PODS TO SWING THE STERN IN THE REQUIRED DIRECTION TO PRODUCE THE MAIN HULL TURNING FORCE, AS DESCRIBED IN CHAPTER 4 UNLIKE A CONVENTIONAL RUDDER, HOWEVER, AZI-PODS CAN ACHIEVE FULL SIDEWAYS THRUST AT A HELM ANGLE OF 90° SO THE SHIP'S TURNING CIRCLE RADIUS IS CONSIDERABLY REDUCED. SLOW SPEED MANOUEVRIBILITY IS FURTHER ENHANCED BY FITTING BOW TUNNEL THRUSTERS ‘The vertical leg ofthe azi-pod is faired to give ita shape similar to that ofa conventional rudder as this will assist the tuming force and tend to direct water flow squarely into the propeller dise when the ship is turing. The stern is also generally fitted with a 'skeg’ (see page 136) between the power units to improve the ship’ directional stability when steering at speed,EGRATING THE CONTROL OF OVERALL THRUST The benefit of combining the control of all the separate thrusters became increasingly obvious as the vessels were fitted with an increasing number of more powerful auxiliary thrusters. This led to the development of a joystick’ system that consists of two controls. The ‘azimuth’ thrust control directs bodily thrust as the vector sum of athwartships and fore and aft thrust whilst the ‘yaw’ control creates a + 180° e.g. 181% 182% 183° etc. then heading error = (required heading - actual heading) - 360° and is always negative We can now use the heading error in the following equations to represent the helmsman actions. 1) The amount of helm initially applied. - The helmsman will generally apply a rudder angle that is approximately proportional to the heading error, so typically he may use 15° of rudder for a 30° course alteration but only 2° to correct for a 5° heading error. The amount of helm per degree of heading error is known as the ‘gain’ and the helmsman's action can be described as follows. The rudder angle ‘OR’ at any instant of time = constant 'a' x heading error but ‘OR’ = 30° The constant ‘a' is the ‘gain’ and depends upon the ship's characteristics. The rudder angle has a ‘maximum limit of 30°s0 no solution 10 the above equation that is greater than this is allowed. 2) The counter helm action, - Ifthe helmsman's actions simply obeyed the above equation, then he ‘would only put the helm amidships when the heading error was zero and the ship would continue to swing past the required heading. The heading error and, consequently, the applied helm would bbe reversed and so the oscillations of the ship's head either side of the course would continually ‘grow. A helmsman avoids this by reversing the helm to check the swing before the ship's head reaches the intended course and his judgement on this will be based upon the rate at which the heading error is changing, We therefore must replace the above equation with the following, ‘or’ = ‘ax heading error + constant b’ x rate of change of heading error but ‘oR’ = 30° The gain’ also depends upon the ship's characteristics. The rate of change of heading error is negative when the heading error is decreasing, i.e. ship is swinging towards the required heading, ‘The a’ and 'b' gains are the helm and counter helm settings respectively and if they are correctly balanced, the sum of the two terms will be negative whilst the heading error is still positive so the ‘equation produces counter helm before the ship swings onto the required heading, This will control a shipis steering but it may still use excessive rudder movement, asa ship is frequently knocked slightly off course by short-term oscillatory wave forces. A helmsman who responds instantly to every slight heading error is likely to over-steer the ship as, by the time the rudder has moved over to correct for the error, the ship may already be swinging back on course so his action only serves to exaggerate the swing. Good steering control consequently also requires a time delay to changing the heim when the heading error and rate of change of error are small. We could regard this as a ‘ime variable dead ‘band’ in which the system is paused and waiting to see how the situation develops.Motion stability and steering control systems ‘The previous chapter considered directional stability purely in terms of how the ship's immersed hullform affects its response to being knocked off course, without any corrective helm action being taken. If we introduce an automated response, such as the action of an autopilot, to the ship, then we should also consider the steering stability of the ship in combination with its control system, Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands considers three different levels of ‘motion stability’ that include a ship's course keeping characteristics and re-defines the term ‘directional stability’ as the control system's ability to return the ship to its set heading after being knocked off course. The third and highest level of motion stability is reached if the ship's control system also has a navigation input to put the vessel back onto its original track after being temporarily displaced by a transient force. ‘THE THREE DELFT UNIVERSITY LEVELS OF MOTION STABILITY (AS APPLIED TO A SHIP'S RESPONSE TO EXPERIENCING A TRANSIENT DISTURBING FORCE 1 nt ; THIS IS THE SHIP'S DIRECTIONAL STABILITY WITHOUT ANY CORRECTIVE HELM ACTION - A STABLE RESPONSE B-UNSTABLE RESPONSE, ‘A HEADING INI ———— os ‘A- STABLE RESPONSE A. STABLE RESPONSE Automated c rol and DP. Computer control of a DP system uses the same basic principles described on the previous page except that now the programme requires equations to control the ‘sway’ (ie. athwartships) and ‘surge’ (i.e. fore and aft) motion as well as the yaw. The sway and surge control equations will have different 'a' and '' gains applied to the position error and the rate of change of position error (i. the velocity error) respectively. The system must include position inputs from navigation sensors in addition to the heading input from the compass and these are updated at regular intervals, which can be as short as cone second, The yaw and sway equations can make conflicting demands on the athwartships thrusters so the programme must also include an order of priority, which is usually to maintain heading control before anything else. The two-term control equation given on the bottom of 153 is insufficient to determine the correct thrust, as it will always reverse the thrust when the ship overshoots the target position. Ships usually hold station against a predominant current or sea force so there must be an average thrust directed upstream. We would not put the thrust to zero if the ship was in position or reverse it when slightly upstream of the target, asin either case the ship would start rapidly drifting downstream. The two-term control equation could only hold a steady position some distance downstream of the target where the position error is sufficiently large to produce a thrust demand that counters the effect of the current.Automated control and DP (cont.) This bias in thrust direction also exists with the yaw control when the ship's head is not directly in line with the wind, The basic autopilot described on pages 141 and 142 solves this problem with a manual input of permanent helm through the weather helm setting but DP and adaptive autopilots use a third term in the control equation to determine bias in the thrust needed to hold a position or heading. This ‘integral term' demands thrust in proportion to the accumulative sum of (position error x duration of position error). The DP keeps a running total of the (position error x fix interval) values, which it updates at every new fix and is, in effec, the area under a position error - time graph extending right ‘back to the time that the DP took control We ean see how the integral term works by considering how we would manually hold a ship on station inn unknown current. We first stop all the thrust when the ship is in position, as we do not know about the current. We then try to hold position by trial and error as we assess the current by increasing and decreasing thrust, whilst the ship oseillates back and forth about the target position. The first few position errors will be large and alternating in direction but they will be biased towards the ship being downstream of the target. After a while we get an increasing ‘fee!' for the current and the average thrust needed to counter it so the position errors gradually diminish as the ship more consistently holds, to the target. The integral term makes the DP behave in a similar way as random position errors cancel ‘each other out so the position error integral only accumulates the bias inthe position errors. Ifthe ship ‘eventually holds station on the target, the integral term would become constant to give a steady thrust. We now have a possible equation suitable for controlling DP thrust demand in one axis of motion. Thrust = ‘a' (position error) +b (velocity error) +c’ (position error integral) Where ‘a’, 'b' and 'c' are the gain factors, Ifthe equation is applied to heading control, then the position error becomes the heading error and the velocity error becomes the rate of yaw error. This type of control equation is commonly used in many other automatically controlled systems and is known as a 'PID' controller, which stands for ‘Proportional, Integral & Derivative’ controller, as the rate of velocity error is the derivative (or differential) of the position error, with respect to time, (The single and two term equations given on page 155 are known as 'P and ‘PD’ controllers respectively.) The following diagram illustrates how the integral term in a ship's DP control builds up to produce an average thrust demand, though the quickness at which the fore and aft position error goes to zero is ‘exaggerated. In reality, this would take much longer than the 36 seconds suggested by the graph. ‘SIMPLE PID CONTROL OF THE FORE AND AFT THRUST IN A STEADY CURRENT ‘THE INTEGRAL REMAINS CONSTANT WHEN THE POSITION ERROR IS ZERO ‘THE SHIP'S VELOCITY IS ASSUMED TO BE CONSTANT BETWEEN FIXES St= 1 second FANTERVAL it [ATTHE n® POSITION F1% INTEGRAL TERM = Dy oxot |ATEACH FO THE DP ADOS THE NEW dct VALUE TO THE EXISTING RUNNING TOTAL SO THE INTEGRAL TERM fs CONTINUALLY UPDATED THe THREE TERM PID: CONTROL EQUATION iS THEN AS FOLLONS AT THE n POSITION FIX, aria RODS TeV eee ee eee ee WHERE ‘2’ & ‘ARE THE PROPORTIONAL, DERIVATIVE AND INTEGRAL GAINS, dx = FORE AND AFT POSITION ERROR AND dt= FIX INTERVAL AT TIME ZERO OF WHEN THE DP TAKES CONTROL THRUST Tx(0) = ZEROAute Lane ‘The DP ‘sees’ the reverse of the vector sum of the integral term thrusts in the athwartships and fore and afi control equations as the ‘environmental force’, which is displayed on the control console screen. ‘The environmental force is, in effect, the sum of all the average forces that the ship is pushing against, ‘which will include hull resistance when the ship moves through the water and the tow force ifa ship is. towing an underwater plough on a burial operation. Wind can be treated separately if wind speed and relative direction are continually inputted from an anemometer and the DP has data for the bodily forces and turing moments due to the wind acting on the ship's topside area over a range of wind. speeds and relative directions. The control equation will contain a fourth term that calculates the thrust actions needed to counter the effects of the wind separately. This is known as a ‘predictive’ or ‘feed- forward’ term and it allows the DP to react to the wind before it affects the ship's heading or position. “The thrust equations for each axis of control can then be written as follows to include the wind. Thrust = ‘a (position error) +'b' (velocity error) + 'c' (position error integral) + 'd' (wind speed) If there is no wind input, then the bias in position and heading errors will be greater as the DP must. ‘Team’ the effects ofthe wind upon its station keeping. The thrust needed to counter the wind will then bbe determined by the integral term and so is incorporated into the environmental force. Perhaps the most important part of passing control over to the DP is ensuring that it can actually bring the ship to a stop, which is easier if the ship's residual velocity and yaw rate are low when the DP is activated. The DP, though, also needs positional stability, as shown on page 156 and the following graphs again show the responses of systems with different degrees of stability to a single disturbing, force. If we look at the circled points where the curves cross the zero position error axis of the graphs, ‘we can see that the velocity error (ie. the slope of the curve) is progressively reduced by stable control but increased by the unstable system. A. stable system applies counter thrust before the position error reaches zero so the ship's velocity is reducing every time it passes through the target position and the velocity term gain must be high, relative to the position error gain. A system is unstable if velocity control is so weak that the ship is still accelerating ever time it passes through the target position. The integral term also reduces positional stability because, although it maintains the ship's position ‘more consistently over the target in constant conditions, its thrust contribution is directed against any ‘change 80 it tries to cancel out errors in one direction by producing errors in the opposite direction. If the integral control gain is too high, relative to the velocity control, a disturbing force can start the ship to constantly oscillate about the target, as is shown by the neutral response. )SITION CONTROL SYSTEMS TO A TRAN: . ‘TRANSIENT Increasing stability makes the ship less responsive to position errors because the system concentrates ‘on matching the ship's speed with that of the target (which, of course, may be zero) and is not so bothered by being slightly out of position. Excessive stability is not good for holding « ship stationary ‘over a targct but some DP modes use it as ‘velocity control" when the ship is following a specified track. Unstable DP is obviously unusable and dangerous though some ships do suffer from neutral stability in one or more of the motion axes. This indicates that the balance of the gains in the control equation need re-tuning by the system makers but ifthe oscillations are not large enough to seriously affect the ship's operations, the owners may choose to accept the problem. I have sailed on a cable ship that continually surged to and fro through distances of 10 metre or so in DP control even when the ‘weather was calm, though the sway (Je. athwartships motion) control was good.Automated control and DP ( ‘The gain values are usually simple constants (ie. a simple thrust demand per metre position error or per metre / second velocity error) but some systems may make the gain actually vary with the errors if this improves DP performance, particularly in some of the more specialised modes of operation. The ‘operator can adjust the gains of the (a) positionheading and (b) velocity/rate of yaw errors by setting high, medium or low ‘control gains’. ‘The average thrust required for a ship to hold station in a particular situation is obviously determined by the natural prevailing physical factors such as current, wind etc, regardless of the balance of gains in the control equations. Ifthe integral term gain is reduced, then the actual integral of position error with time (ie. the area under the position error - time graph) that is required to produce the necessary average thrust will increase. The control equation gains can be balanced to produce positional stability with a relatively low integral term gain, so a large number of biased position errors must accumulate to produce the average thrust sufficient to counter the prevailing current or surface drift. The ship stops {quite readily but closes on to the target relatively slowly. This ‘serting down’ period normally should between ten and twenty minutes, depending upon the circumstances and the level of position error that is acceptable for the ship's operation. The integral term similarly takes time to react to changes in the environmental force, because the previous bias in position error and consequent average thrust demand only disappears when the DP has received sufficient position errors in the opposite direction DP systems should be able to cope with gradual changes without the ship wandering too far off station but sudden changes can result in large position errors that persist whilst the previous bias is being gradually ‘forgotten’ and over-written by a new bias to match the change of situation. Most DP systems solve this by now including a ast learn’ option, which amplifies the position error as it is added to the position error integral for a limited period of time, indicated by a count down that appears on the ‘operator's screen after the command has been activated. This accelerates the rate at which the integral term is over-written by new position errors to change the environmental force to reflect the new situation, ‘Fast learn’ has only been available since about 2001 and so older systems may not have it. ‘AN EXAMI EARN’ COMMAND (TO BE USED IF THE ENVIRONMENTAL FORCE, RELATIVE TO THE SHIP'S HEAD, CHANGES RAPIDLY) UPDATE RATE |S ACCELERATED BY THE FAST LEARN’ Model controt Ifthe navigation inputs fail, then the DP control equations will receive no further position errors and so the position error and velocity error thrust demands tend to zero. The only thrust demands that then remain in the position control equations will be the average environmental thrust of the integral term. and any feed forward thrust determined by the wind inputs from the anemometer, if this has been selected before the failure of position input. Heading control will be unaffected providing that the DP is still receiving inputs from the gyro. This situation is known as ‘model control" and though itis quite basi, it can be surprisingly effective at limiting the drift off station ifthe ship was previously holding to the target position in reasonably steady conditions. (This also applies to a moving target, provided that the ship's velocity was constant.) As we will see in the following pages, DP control continually compares predictions of the ship's position errors with the navigational input, so model control can continue changing the thrust demands based on the predicted position errors but only until the DP ‘thinks’ that the ship is back on station. Model control gives ship's staff time to rectify the fault but itis important not to change any of the DP settings. Selecting an anemometer after the navigation, for example, would be a bad idea, as wind effects will already be included in the environmental force.Filtering the inputted position data “Most readers should remember taking measurements in school physics experiments, such as the stretch ofa spring for different loads, in which the data was supposed to produce a straight line graph but the ‘points never quite fall into line. The teacher would say. 'Never mind, just draw the best straight line through the scatter of points. (Le. the line that goes the ‘elosest to the mostest’ points.). Drawing the "best straight line’ totally ‘filters out" all the variations in the measured data but its validity relies on the assumptions that the experiment's results should actually give as straight-line graph, and that the errors in the points off the line are random so consequently cancel each other out. Such random errors are known as ‘white noise’ and filtering techniques try to separate these out from the underlying patter. ‘The DP relies upon the quality of the navigation and heading inputs, which like all measurements contain random variations. If the DP 'sees' the ship moving around the target position, it will respond to these changes in position error, regardless of whether they are real movements or not. The DP will consequently, create real position errors as it thrusts the ship about to correct for spurious position errors due to variations of accuracy in the navigation data. This is unavoidable to a certain extent as real and spurious movements of the ship are often indistinguishable in the position data. Unwanted thrust activity though can be reduced by passing the navigation data through a degree of filtering that reduces the more extreme changes in position errors before using them to control the thrust demands. ‘The particular filtering process that is now almost universally used to do this is based on the ‘Kalman filter’, which was developed for the U.S. space programme to control the path of space craft but now has a wide range of applications. The DP continually predicts the position error at the next fix from the ‘thrust applied to the ship and then interpolates between the predicted and measured position errors, on the basis of their relative accuracies, to obtain the most probable estimated or ‘filtered’ position error. The filtered position error is then used as the basis for the next prediction and put in to the control equations to determine the thrust demands. The filter requires certain information, such as a measure of the precision of its predicted positions and of the position fixes the Kalman filter programmes can bbe made to continually re-assess the precision of each new input and adjust the interpolation factor accordingly. This particular process involves complex mathematics and readers who look up a Kalman filter web site on the Internet (as I have done) are likely to find themselves immersed in strange and. alien territory. However, we need not become too bothered by this, as DP systems are generally programmed with a simple default interpolation factor, which is known as the ‘Kalman gain’. ‘A ship's position is obviously expressed in two-dimensions but, as we have seen with the control equations, we can regard the fore and aft and the athwartships axes separately, which makes explaining the filter action a lot simpler. ‘The filtering process is only valid if the random variation in position possibilities is distributed. ‘normally’ about the position error value. ‘Normal distribution’ is defined mathematically but we can jjust take it to mean that the probability of the ship being somewhere else other than a given position diminishes in a particular way with increasing distance from the stated value. This produces a characteristic "bell shaped’ graph that shows the spread of all the possible position errors and the probabilities of the ship actually being there. High precision positions produce tall thin bell shaped plots whilst low precision positions give a short and wide plot. In each case, though, the total area under the curve equals I’ as it represents 100% of the possibilities. ‘The Kalman gain interpolation factor determines how far the predicted position error should be altered rowards the error measured from the fix to give the filtered position error. If the DP is ‘tol that the position fix is much more accurate than its predicted position then the Kalman gain is high and filtered position errors are very heavily biased, or ‘weighted’ towards the position errors measured from the fixes. The precision or accuracy of the measured position error can be represented by the distribution curves available from the considerable data on the performances of the various navigation systems. ‘The predicted position error will usually be less precise as it depends on both the accuracy of its previous filtered position error and the reliability of the DP's calculation. This applies nef thrust (i.e. total thrust minus the thrust to overcome the environmental force) to the ship's mass in a simple equation of motion. The DP estimates net thrust by putting the position and velocity error thrust demands into a programmed model of the thruster performance that includes the time required for the thrusters to ‘ramp up' to give a realistic value for the net thrust over the time interval between fixes.Filtering the inputted mn data (cont, 1 ( NET THRUST in kiloNewtons orenicTe GUMNOEM PORTION ERROR = ute « 1 METDUUSTintetrtee ) ry WHERE ‘U'(m/s) = THE EXISTING SHIP'S VELOCITY & ‘a (s) = THE TIME INTERVAL TO THE NEXT FIX The predicted position error forthe time of the first fix after initiating DP control will be zero, as initially, the DP has not a clue as to what the ship is doing. It has only been given an initial holding position and so sets the fore and aft and athwartships thrust demands to zero because it has no position error to put into the control equations until it receives the next fix. The ship will undoubtedly be ‘moving due to the environmental force and any residual motion it had when the DP was activated but the DP cannot yet detect this. The filter allows for this by applying a high Kalman gain, which is the default setting in most systems so filtered position errors are weighted towards the position errors, ‘measured by the fixes unless the operator changes this by manually ‘relaxing’ the Kalman gain setting, FIXERROR PREDICTED ERROR "yw "YP" od, ALTIBVEON FILTERED 0 POSITION ERROR TBD POSITION ERROR "Y" ‘THE FILTERED POSITION ERROR"Y' = "YP" +"K'("YM'-"YP") WHERE THE FACTOR ‘K’ IS KNOWN AS THE KALMAN GAIN’ AND HAS A VALUE BETWEEN ‘1’ AND ‘0° ASK’ TENDS TOWARDS '0; THE FILTERED POSITION ERROR TENDS TOWARDS THE PREDICTION BUT/IF K'= 1, THE POSITION ERROR IS AS MEASURED AND THERE IS NO DATA FILTERING AT ALL. Fs 2 REI A IN (FOR HIGH PRECISION FIXES) (FOR LOW PRECISION FIXES) TINE {URED POSITION ERROR FILTERED POSITION ERROR IS WEIGHTED TOWARDS THE PREDICTED VALUE FILTERED POSITION ERROR 8 | sayepenrosmow enmon s wercnreD TOWARDS THE MEASURED VALUE east port ‘The operator can see the Kalman filter working if the position error from the navigation is displayed ‘on the screen with the target position and the outline of the ship. The navigation input symbol will move around the screen with successive fixes mote than the ship's outline, as the variation in position error is reduced by the filter. If the navigation input becomes erratic, then an operator can select up to usually five different levels of progressively heavier filtering (i.e. increasing the weighting towards the predicted position error). The most relaxed Kalman gain setting gives such heavy filtering that itis ‘almost the same as model control and the DP will hardly respond to the navigation input at allFiltering out wave induced motion from ition data ‘Though erratic jumps in the measured position error are often due to deterioration in the navigational input accuracy, the ship's position will also randomly move around as the vessel surges and sways to the action of the waves (sce chapter 7). Much of these real movements of the ship tend to cancel each other out and will appear as random errors ot white noise in the position fix input that is indistinguishable from variations in the navigational input accuracy. The waves produce oscillatory forces acting on the ship that are much larger than the quite limited thrust available to counter it. If we retumn briefly to chapter 1 and look at equation 'I' on page 19 we ccan see that a 2 metre high wave with a period of 5 seconds (typical for Beaufort force 5 wind conditions) will generate a water particle velocity of about 1.3 metres per second. A ship will consequently experience an oscillating surface current that regularly peaks at about 2.5 knots and reverses every 2.5 seconds with the passing of alternate wave crests and troughs, though the inertia of the ship's mass prevents it from following the water's motion completely. Nevertheless, such waves can easily cause a 3,000 ton ship to oscillate perhaps @ metre or so about the target position, particularly in a beam sea as the force of the water flowing past the ship is so high. If we consider the ship shown on page 154 holding station against such beam seas then about 200 kiloNewtons, or 20 tonnes, of its athwartships thrust will be utilised to counter the environmental force due to steady surface drift. This leaves about 400 kiloNewtons of thrust available to maintain the heading and hold against the wave action, Even if this thrust could be instantly generated, a 400 kN force will only give aan acceleration of 0.1 metre / second” on a ship of 4,000 tonnes displacement, as the net force on an object = its mass x acceleration. The most that such a force could move the ship in two seconds is less than a half of a metre and, of course, the ship's machinery cannot generate such high thrusts instantly. The inevitable delay of any corrective thrust action to such short lasting position fluctuations may actually reinforce the wave action, rather than counter it So the ship's motions induced by the higher frequency waves do need to be largely filtered out of the position errors that are put into the control equations because itis several thousand tons of ship we are trying to control and not a formula one racing car. However, the ship's wave induced motion is not entirely random, as it also includes an underlying surface drift or ‘sea force’, which moves the ship slightly in the direction of the waves’ travel (see page 26) with the passing of each wave. ‘A SHIP'S WAVE INDUCED MOVEMENTS THE SHIP IS HOLDING POSITION AGAINST HEAD SEAS THE WATER PARTICLE MOTION IN THE WAVES IS NOT COMPLETELY CIRCULAR AS THE ORBITS MOVES A ‘SMALL DISTANCE '¢' IN THE DIRECTION OF THE WAVE PROPAGATION DURING EACH CYCLE. THIS IS KNOWN ‘AS SURFACE OR ‘STOKES' DRIFT. ‘THE SHIP'S FORE AND AFT MOVEMENTS = WAVEINDUCED SURGE =» ——— = SURFACEDRIFT THE SHIP WILL MOVE OFF POSITION iF SURFACE DRIFT IS NOT COUNTEREDFiltering out wave induced motion from inputted position data (cont.) We could try relaxing the Kalman gains to reduce the effects of wave motion on the DP. However, if ‘we command the DP to take less notice of the ship's increasing oscillations in response to waves as the ‘weather rises, then the filtered position errors will also show less ofthe increase in surface drift. ‘THE EFFECT OF CON! THE SHIP HAS BEEN STEADILY HOLDING POSITION BUT THE BEAM SURFACE,) SEA CONDITIONS ARE NOW INCREASING AND THE KALMAN GAINS RIFT HAVE CONSEQUENTLY JUST BEEN RELAXED ° TIME PostTion ERRORS MEASURED FILTERED POSITION ERROR ACTUAL POSITION ERROR TOWARDS THE TARGET port — — = ACTUAL SURFACE DRIFT ‘THE DP CONTINUALLY UNDER-ESTIMATES THE ____ FILTERED SURFACE DRIFT WITH ‘SURFACE DRIFT DUE TO THE HEAVY FILTERING RELAXED KAMAN GAINS ‘The DP system must be programmed to not 'see' accelerations that the thrusters cannot match whilst preserving its ability to detect the surface drift and this can be achieved by effectively relaxing the Kalman gain as the position fixes measure increasing accelerations. The ship's acceleration in any oseillatory motion is greatest when the ship's distance from the mean position is also maximum (i.e. at the limits of the motion) whilst acceleration is reduced to zero as the ship passes through the mean position at maximum velocity. The ship's random to and fro motions of surge and sway to the waves will be largely filtered out from the DP control but surface drift will still be detected in ful. 3Y VARYING THE KAL! iP'S ACCELERATION SURFACE orer Posmion ERRORS MEASURED ‘TOWARDS THE TARGET i i ; i @ KALMAN GAIN IS MINIMUM AT POSITIONS '" —— = ACTUAL SURFACE DRIFT 4 '3' WHEN ACCELERATION IS MAXIMUM FILTERED SURFACE DRIFT WITH RANDOM WAVE MOTION IS FILTERED BUT —— = KALMAN GAIN RELAXATION THE OP DETECTS THE SURFACE DRIFT CONTROLLED BY ACCELERATIONFiltering out wave induced motion from inputted position data (cont.) The ship's wave induced motion will neither be regular nor synchronised with the fixes but the surface drift should be detected, provided that the fix interval is considerably shorter than the significant wave periods. The filtering out of much of the surge and sway from the DP control is based on ‘frequeney {filtering' the position data, as the ship's acceleration at the limits of the oscillating motion increases ‘with the motion’s frequency. The filtering will not stop the ship surging and swaying to the waves, as it limits the DP's responding thrust demands but, in doing so, it prevents excessive thrusting that can also possibly increase ship movement if it lags too far behind the wave motion. ‘The manufacturers’ system engineers determine the method and level of frequency filtering, which cannot be adjusted by the operators through the options available to them on the DP console. Filtering out effects of roll, piteh and yaw from ii ition The position errors must relate to a single point on the ship, known as the ‘control point’, whict usually amidships on the centreline of the waterplane but other locations can be selected, as is explained later in the chapter. The navigation sensors, such as the GPS antenna, sonar tracking head ete. however are placed at various sites around the vessel so the vertical, transverse and longitudinal offsets of these locations from the control point must be programmed into the DP. Furthermore, the vessel will yaw, roll and pitch with the waves and all the navigational sensors will be affected by these ‘motions fo an extent that depends upon a particular sensor's location. A GPS satellite navigation antenna mounted at the masthead, for example, aquires considerable lateral to and fro motion when the ship is rolling and pitching. A DP system consequently needs a continuous input from sensors measuring the yaw, pitch and rol angle so that these effects of the ship's motion can be filtered out from the navigation fixes before they are mixed with the predictions in the Kalman filter. The yaw angle is obviously supplied by the ship's ‘gyrocompass but the ship must also be equipped with a separate pitch and roll unit, known as the "VRU'. Pitch and roll corrections for an underwater navigation sensor, such as a sonar tracking head extended below the ship's keel, will be in the opposite direction to the more normal sensor locations above the waterline. For some reason unknown to me, some sonar systems allow the sense of these motion corrections to be manually reversed, so an operator should think carefully before changing any of the settings on the sonar output to the DP. ‘THE TO AND FRO Mi F NAVIGATION SENSORS DUE TO ROLLING “oscrs' ‘THE EFFECT OF R¢ " FROI co VERTICAL ‘THE GPS ANTENNA IS DISPLACED '6s' METRES FROM ITS MEAN POSITION WHERE "sScrs' = Sino Sor ‘ht = 30 metros & "0 THEN "0ScPs' ~ 5 metres GPS ANTENNA THE SONAR TRACKING HEAD IS DISPLACED ‘és! METRES FROM ITS MEAN POSITION WHERE "sSson' = -dSino sor ‘= 12metres & ‘= 10° THEN “SSSON' = -2 metros THE SONAR TRACKING HEAD WILL MOVE IN THE (OPPOSITE DIRECTION TO THE GPS ANTENNA ANGLES OF PITCH AND ROLL ARE DETECTED BY ‘A MOTION SENSOR, KNOWN AS THE 'VRU' AND FED TO THE DP FOR CORRECTING NAVIGATION INPUTS PRIOR TO KALMAN FILTERING‘The difference between Kalman and control gains ‘The word ‘gain’ in the term ‘Kalman gain’ is an unfortunate choice of terminology because, as I hope the reader will have realised by now, itis a non-dimensional number that is quite different from the control equation gains, which are the thrust demands per unit of position or velocity error. However relaxing the Kalman gains and reducing the control gains do have similar effects upon the thrust demands but there are subtle differences that a DP operator needs to appreciate as he can choose to carry out either action manually. Reducing the control gains will result in lower thrust demands for given filtered position and velocity errors but the filtered position errors themselves are not altered so the integral term and consequently the environmental force that the DP senses also remain unchanged. Manually relaxing the Kalman «gains also produces lower thrust demands but this is now achieved by heavier filtering of the navigation inputs so the filtered position and velocity errors are decreased whilst the control gains remain unaltered. Relaxing the Kalman gain has the opposite effect on DP control to the 'fast learn’ process, described on page 159, as the integral term will only accumulate the smaller more heavily filtered position errors so the DP becomes less sensitive to real changes in the environmental forces. We have seen how this affects the DP’s reaction to changes in the surface drift when waves are either building up or diminishing but it is equally true for any change in conditions, such as changing tidal ‘currents, that occurs during a period when the Kalman gains are relaxed. lt heading error input data ‘The heading input is also passed through a Kalman filter but, unlike the position control, the Kalman ‘gain settings for heading control are fixed and can neither be relaxed manually by the operator nor is it automatically varied to filter out the yawing motion caused by wave action. As is explained later on page 174, the turning moments increase with the wind's angle from the ship's fore and af line to reach ‘@ maximum when the wind is about 45° off the bow or stern, The DP consequently cannot not allow xyawing about the set heading, as this increases the risk of losing heading control altogether. THE {C OPERATING 'S OF A DP SYSTEM ‘Transferring the control of ship from the normal bridge control used on passage to DP is generally done in stages. The thrusters are initially activated under local control, which means that each thruster control is stll separate and can be tested individually before activating the combined joystick contro. ‘Most DP equipped ships have at least two local control stations, which are usually on the forward and aft facing bridge consoles and a selector switch prevents both of these stations being active at the same time. Its important that the DP operators are thoroughly familiar with how the individual thruster controls are passed from the bridge console to the DP as it varies considerably from ship to ship. Once control is transferred to the DP, there are three basic operating levels fundamental to all DP systems, which all the other more specialised modes are developed from. The following diagram shows the ‘sequence in which control of the vessel can be progressively moved from the manual operation of the joystick to DP control, me Coit Peete aed aaa‘The basis ofa DI ‘The ship should be as close as possible to being stopped and on a steady heading before initiating the DP, as thrust demands tend to be excessive if the vessel has a residual speed of much more than about knot. The following block diagram summarises the essential elements of a basic DP control system. rat ‘AN EXAMPLE OF BASIC DP CONTROL = MANUAL INPUTS acta RELATIVE WIND SPEED GYROCOMBAES' celta Saeed ora eet Patera HEADING Peg Pod eae Leni Pecans DRAFT AS SHIP'S DISPLACEMENT INPUT Poeaaeeuiy | DP MODEL CONTROL THE INTEGRAL TERMS ARE UPDATED CONTINUALLY TO MAINTAIN THE AVERAGE THRUSTS REQUIRED TO KEEP THE SHIP ON STATION AND HOLD ITS HEADING. THESE THRUSTS WIL. CONTINUE TO HOLD THE SHIP APPROXIMATELY IN POSITION IF NAVIGATIONAL INPUT FAILS Model control will also apply to a failure in the heading input from the gyrocompass but this tends to bbe much rarer than position input failures, which are more prone to outside influences. The gyro and its follow up system is entirely contained onboard the ship so any fault is accessible to the ship's staff. Providing that the shipowner has kept up with the compass manufacturer's planned maintenance such faults are often something relatively minor, such as a fuse wearing out and, in any case, ships with DP control should have at least two independent gyrocompasses,DP AND A SHIP'S PROPULSION One of the traditional problems in manoeuvring ships with engine room control was (and pethaps still is) that engine movement commands came down to the engine room telegraph quicker than the engineers could make the engine carry them out. This was particularly the case with big, slow running, diesel engines that have to be stopped and re-started every time the thrust direction is reversed. On some occasions a pilot or captain would order such a rapid sequence of altemations between slow ahead and slow astern that the engine room just couldn't keep up. There were numerous tales told on older ships of some fairly pungent comments made on the bottom plates and then being amplified to ‘waft out of the engine room ventilators just aft of the bridge. The heavenly ship handler on such ships, as far as the engineers were concemed, was the man who didn't keep fiddling about with the controls The first thing to realise about DP control is that it is an unsurpassed ‘fiddler’ as adjustments to thrust demands are made every two seconds or so when the system receives a new fix. The relatively simple control system only works because the DP is saturated with position and heading inputs, Machinery must be able to keep up with these demands that frequently include rapid reversals of thrust direction, which is best achieved if zero thrust is produced by a dynamic balance between opposing thrusts. A controllable pitch main propeller is ideally suited for a sequence of minor thrust reversals in a single screw ship as the engine and propeller direction are left undisturbed. Alternatively, a single screw ship ‘can be fitted with a bow azimuth thruster, such as a gill jet, which can then be set up to oppose the main screw. Ahead or aster thrust is then achieved by simply increasing the thrust of one, relative to the other. Ahead and astern thrust balance can be achieved in a twin screwed ship by setting one main serew in opposition to the other and countering any resulting turning moment with the lateral thrusters. Thrust demands are sent to the "TAL" or Thrust Allocation Logic software, which is programmed to distribute the thrust to the individual thrusters in a way that suits the particular ship. ‘THE THRUSTER, ‘THE UNDERSIDE OF THE VESSEL THE MAIN PROPELLER (6) AND FORWARD GILL JET (3) ARE SET UP IN OPPOSITION. ZERO FORE AND AFT THRUST /S THE RESULT OF A DYNAMIC BALANCE BETWEEN THESE TWO THRUSTERS. SO AHEAD OR ASTERN THRUST |S ACHIEVED BY ALTERING THE BALANCE BETWEEN THEM ATYPICAL THRUST RESPONSE TO ADJUSTING ‘THE VESSEL'S HEADING AND POSITION — D> This responsiveness of the thruster arrangement to rapidly changing thrust demands is achieved at the expense of fuel economy. Maintaining a dynamic balance between the gill jet and main screw creates high fuel consumption, particularly in heavy weather. A 14,000 t displacement cableship laying cable aeross the North Pacific in winter consumed about 30 tonnes of fuel each day whilst using DP to ‘maintain a prescribed track ata speed of about 3 knots against strong head seas. The ship's normal daily fuel consumption ata full speed of 16 knots was only about 25 tonnes. All diesel electrie power is a common choice for purpose built DP vessels but it is not universal. Quite number of ships are built with geared diesel engines driving the main propellers whilst the auxiliary thrusters are powered by electric motors supplied by the ship's generating plant. Main engines can also drive shaft generators in addition to the main propellers so the engine load will also be affected by auxiliary thruster loads as well as the main propulsion demands. Power management systems that stop and start generators automatically to match the load may not be appropriate for DP control, as a recently shut down generator requires a certain amount of time before itis ready to be re-started.‘THE POSITION MONITORING EQUIPMENT (PME's) ‘The navigational input can be provided by a variety of devices, known collectively as the 'PME's' (Position Monitoring Equipment) and the common types are summarised in the following diagram. A HEAVY WEIGHT IS LOWERED ONTO THE SEABED ON A WIRE THAT IS HELD TAUT BY A ‘SPECIAL WINGH ON THE DAVIT. THE DAVIT HEAD DETECTS CHANGES IN THE INITIAL UP AND DOWN LEAD AND THESE ARE SENT 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). @SONAR.BEACON (@) (NUMBER IN SYMBOL 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 SHIPS MOVEMENTS ARE THEN CALCULATED FROM THE CHANGING RANGES AND BEARINGS OF THE VESSEL FROM THE BEACON. (EFFECTIVE UP TO ABOUT 1500 METRES OF WATER BUT ACCURACY DETERIORATES CONSIDERABLY BEYOND ABOUT 800 METRES DEPTH.) @agtemis 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 (EFFECTIVE UP TO A RANGE OF ABOUT 5 NAUTICAL. MILES), @ suepss THE VESSEL TRANSMITS A RADIO SIGNAL THAT TRIGGERS A RESPONSE FROM MATCHING TRANSMITTER / RECEIVER UNITS ON SURROUNDING FIXED POSITIONS, EITHER OFFSHORE OR ON LAND. THE SHIP'S POSITION IS THEN CACULATED FROM RANGES MEASURED FROM THESE SIGNALS (EFFECTIVE UP TO A RANGE OF ABOUT 40 NAUTICAL. MILES). © SLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEMIG.P.S) JR THE VESSEL RECEIVES A CONTINUAL STREAM OF POSITIONAL SIGNALS FROM THE NETWORK OF G.P'S. SATELLITES (EFFECTIVE ALMOST WORLD-WIDE BUT COVERAGE CAN VARY). THE APPROXIMATE RANGE LIMITS OF THE SYSTEMS ABOVE ARE ONLY A GENERAL GUIDE‘The position monitoring equipment (cont.) Al the PME's shown on the previous page provide fixes at very regular intervals but have advantages and disadvantages that make them more suitable for some circumstances rather than others. ‘The taut wire is considered very reliable in relatively shallow water, but strong currents can cause an crror by deflecting the lead angle whilst any bodily heave of the ship can ‘bounce’ the weight on and of, the seabed. The taut wire also restricts the radius of ship movement so itis very much a system for ‘monitoring the position of a ship that is holding station rather than moving. (Many ships have a taut wire on each side so that the second one can be deployed when the ship moves to the limit of the original weight, which is then recovered and ready for re-deployment if the ship continues to move), Sound travels very well underwater and the water column is a very noisy environment so when acoustic systems are used, it is important that the sonar measure ranges and bearings from only the seabed sonar beacons that the ship has put down for that purpose. Beacons laid by other vessels ‘working in the vicinity must be ignored so sonar beacons are tuned to respond to a pulse of a specific frequency transmitted by the tracking head. Both the transmitted and reccived signals are prone to refraction due to changes in the speed of sound, as they move through water of varying temperature ‘and salinity so the direction and range of the beacon can be distorted. However, the refraction effects are reduced if the sound wave travel is closer to the vertical so, ideally the ship's horizontal range from ‘a beacon should be relatively small, compared with the depth of water. ‘The Artemis short-range radar relies on a matching transmitter/receiver sited on a nearby offshore platform, which must be in line of sight of the ship. Sometimes another vessel can pass between the ‘wo radar antennae and temporarily interrupt the signal. ‘Spledis isa radio system in which ship's position is determined by the ranges of two or more stations, ‘measured from the time taken for ship to receive a direct signal in response to its own transmission, This system is usually shared between up to about a dozen ships at any one time. GPS or satellite navigation has now become so widely available that it has almost completely replaced previous terrestrial based radio navigation systems. It is the only electronic navigational system that ccan provide a ship with a continual stream of position fixes, accurate to within a metre or so, as the vessel crosses an entire ocean. Consequently, itis usually the only PME available to the DP of a vessel engaged in long distance cable laying or position keeping in mid-ocean. Accuracy, though, depends ‘upon with the number and disposition of satellites above the vessel's horizon so it varies with both time and location. Periods of relatively poor accuracy can occur quite suddenly when a satelite that is Particularly critical to the geometry of the fix passes below the GPS acceptable altitude limit but these periods are usually quite short and can be predicted. (The Trimble Navigation Corporation produces a CD that nuns a prediction programme so sensitive ship's operations can be planned not to occur within periods of poor fixes.) Satellite radio signals pass through the earth's ionosphere and so are also affected by unusual changes in the upper atmosphere. One of the main causes for such fluctuations is the variation in the sun's radiation that coincides with intense sunspot activity and this is not so easy to predict though guidance is available to indicate periods when this is most likely to occur. As we have already seen, all the PME sensors (taut wire, sonar tracking head, radio antenna etc.) will ‘move with the ship's heave, pitching and rolling motion, which the DP system must correct for by using signals from an onboard a pitch, heave and roll sensor, known as the ‘VRU" ivi in fix To a relative ‘old-timer’ like myself, the idea of having the ship's position automatically fixed every ‘one or two seconds to an accuracy of about one metre in the middle of an ocean seems almost unbelievable, A jump of position error from I to 6 metres seems almost insignificant but we must remember that the PME inputs are driving the ship through the DP. Such a jump can put its propulsion systems into overdrive, regardless of whether or not the shift in position has any real significance on the vessel's operation. If, however, the DP is receiving signals from three or more PME, it weights the individual PME inputs on their stability, so an erratic input compared to the others is given a low weighting, The DP is also programmed to reject a PME input that either is too erratic or continues to give exactly the same value for the ship's position each time, as such consistency is highly suspect.‘THE DP MONITOR DISPLAYS AND MAIN SETTINGS ‘The DP is operated through a control console, consisting of the joystick azimuth and yaw controls, the basic mode selection buttons, a roller ball and a Visual Display Unit, or VDU. Most modem systems are based upon a ‘windows’ type of programme where higher levels of control are carried out by moving a cursor about the VDU screen to select desired command options, which are then displayed as sub-menus in additional small ‘windows!. In addition to displaying the various options of control, the VDU will also display a choice of two pages out of possible 8 or 10 to indicate how the ship is ‘behaving. The most commonly used pages are the ‘motion’ page, which shows how the ship is moving and the ‘thrust vector’ page, showing how individual thrusters are changing their output. Other pages include realtime thruster feedback information, continuously rolling histories of power output, thrust activity in the athwartships, fore and aft & turning axis, pitch & roll, wind speed and PME constancy. ‘ATYPICAL WINDOWS’ TYPE DP CONSOLE DISPLAY (THIS SHOWS A SIMPLIFIED GENERAL LAYOUT OF A DP CONSOLE AND NOT ANY SPECIFIC MODEL) STATION A HRUSTE! ‘SCREEN COMMAND AND BUTTONS —> 0.49% THRUST [OPTION UNAVALABLE (a nruT FAILING —P 50-69% THRUST [EE] OPTION AVAILABLE am Arn —> +70% THRUST GEE OPTION AVAILABLE & SELECTED [EEX] OTHER OPTIONS. MOST OF THE SELECTIONS MADE BRING UP SUB MENUES IN ADDITIONAL SMALL ‘WINDOWS’ ALL COMMANDS MADE THROUGH THE SYSTEM REQUIRE A CONFIRMATION TO BE ENTERED THE ABOVE DISPLAY SHOWS THE MOTION AND THRUST VECTOR PAGES SELECTED. THE NO. THRUSTER IS OVERLOADED AND ONE OF THE GPS NAVIGATIONAL INPUTS IS ABOUT TO Fall.‘The DP monitor displays and main settings (cont. All DP systems include a ‘simulator’ mode and instruction manual, which operators should use to become thoroughly familiar with the controls and screen options of their own particular system. The following notes are just a brief explanation of the main control settings. The control and Kalman gain ‘The gain settings allow the DP operator to amplify the thrust demands for position and velocity errors in each of the three control equations and a good starting point isto set all three gains at ‘medium then see how the ship behaves. Higher gain settings will increase the thruster activity but may also allow the ship to hold position and heading better when the weather rises to near the limits of the ship's capability. If heading control, in particular, is lost in strong wind then the ship is unlikely to be able to stop drifting off position. There is, though, a school of thought that prefers low gain settings in rising seas to allow the ship to oscillate more about its target position to the action of the waves, which as discussed on page 162, the ship has not the power to oppose. The thrust demands, however, are only reduced for given position and velocity errors and lowering the gains may simply allow the ship to drift further off station until the position errors become so high that the thrusters still overload in an attempt to get back in position. This seems to be my own experience and the frequency filtering of the Kalman filter (see page 163) should limit thrust demands without the need to lower the control gains but the effectiveness of this will depend upon the wave frequency mix in the prevailing sea conditions. Relaxed Kalman gain settings are generally only used if the navigational input is ‘noisy’ and erratically jumping around, though they could be used to simply reduce thrust demands if precise station keeping is nota priority. Relaxed Kalman gains in rough weather, for example, will reduce the thruster activity whilst the ship is oscillating about the target position to the action of the waves. It should be realised ‘though that whilst relaxing the Kalman gains does not alter the DP's existing environmental force, it will reduce the DP's effectiveness to detect changes in the prevailing conditions (see pages 162-164). Selecting the ‘centre of rotation’ (COR) and control point This allows the operator to command the DP to rotate the ship about a specified point on the vessel. Generally there are four or five options, such as midships, the bow, the stem and the point of any suspended apparatus. (This could be the gantry position for an ROV or dive bell). It is useful to be able to change the ship's head without disturbing the position of an ROV being recovered onboard but rotation about any point other than midships requires the ship to move bodity sideways whilst it is ‘swinging and this will put additional load on the thrusters. The centre of rotation is the ‘control point, to which all shifts of position relate and it always appears at the centre of the ‘relative motion page’, Draft setting This setting can be overlooked but it is important to give the DP the correct draft, as this is the only input of the ship's displacement, which it needs to calculate its predicted position for the next fix. Anemometer input Only the windward anemometer should be selected as the leeward anemometer will give a false reading and so the DP will forward feed a false average to the control equations if both are selected. OPERATING THE SHIP THROUGH DP ‘Moving a ship by DP control ‘The operator can move the ship by programming the DP to move the target position at the speed required in the desired direction, through the ‘change position’ sub menu. The DP simply detects the ship moving relative to the target and does not distinguish between a stationary and moving target. ‘The initial increase in both the position and velocity error will increase the thrust in the direction of the move and whilst the position error persists, so the integral term builds up to bias the thrust in the move direction. The environmental force consequently increases to include hull resistance for the ship ‘moving at the programmed speed. The ship will tend to over-run the stop target as an overshoot is required to reduce the environmental force back to its stationary level but this is not usually excessive if the ship's speed is kept relatively low (i.e. up to about I / kmn/h or half a knot). The overshoot can be minimised by the fast learn’ command but this should only really be necessary if the change in the average force due to the move was relatively large compared to the DP’s overall environmental force.Hi ch DP control ‘The operator can make a heading change with the ‘change heading’ sub menu in which the yaw rate and new heading target are selected. The integral term can create significant problems with station keeping when a large heading change is made because DP ‘remembers’ average position errors relative 10 the ship's head, so its frame of reference relative to the real sea forces is altered. Consider a ship that is struggling to hold station against increasing environmental forees on the port beam when the ‘operator decides that itis time to swing the ship's head through 90° into the weather. The loss of position during and after the swing shows clearly how the integral term affects the control equation. m7 IN TER RISING SEA FORCES THAT ARE INITIALLY ON THE PORT BEAM THE ATHWARTSHIPS INTEGRAL SHOWS A STEADY PORT BIAS THE SHIP BEGINS TO LOSE POSITION SO THE ATHWARTSHIPS INTEGRAL TERM STARTS TO GROW FURTHER TO PORT TO COUNTER INCREASING SEA FORCES THE DP OPERATOR STARTS A SWING TO PORT SO SOME ATHWARTSHIPS THRUST IS LOST TO PROVIDE THE TURNING MOMENT AND SO PORT POSITION ERROR AND INTEGRAL INCREASE, THE SEA FORGES ARE INCREASINGLY DIRECTED ON THE BOW AND LESS ON THE BEAM. THE ATHWARTSHIPS INTEGRAL TERM CONTINUES TO THRUST TO PORT DUE TO THE PORT BIAS THOUGH THIS ‘STARTS TO DECAY WITH INCREASING ‘STARBOARD POSITION ERRORS. THE FORE AND AFT POSITION ERROR HAS BUILT UP SUFFICIENT AHEAD BIAS TO. SEAFORCE ‘START REVERSING THE ASTERN DRIFT ATHWARTSHIPS POSITION ERROR & INTEGRAL FORE AND AFT POSITION ERROR & INTEGRAL THE POSITION ERROR GRAPHS NOT TO SCALE IS MEASURED TOWARDS THE TARGET 2 2) THE POSITION ERROR 1S MEASURED TOWARDS THE TARGET The integral term in the athwartships control equation has built up a large port bias prior to making the “change heading’ command so the ship's average thrust is directed strongly to port. This bias will only decay as the DP accumulates starboard position errors so as the ship swings to port, it also continues to maintain an average athwartships thrust to port and the environmental force vector follows the change of heading to remain directed against the port beam. By the time the ship's head has altered by about 40°, this port bias in the thrust is seriously starting to drive the ship to starboard as the actual sea forces are coming increasingly onto the bow and less on the beam. The fore and aft control equation, though, should now start accumulating ahead position errors to build up an average thrust ahead so the environmental force stowly tracks back towards its original true direction. It is also will gradually reduce as the fore and aft hull resistance to water flow is much less than when the flow is directed onto the ship's beam, The diagrams on the following page illustrate how the ship's behaviour would appear oon the true motion display of the VDU.Heading changes by DP control (cont.) TI IVIRONMENTAL FORCE AS SHOWN ON THE MOTION PAGE (THE DISPLAY IS SHOWN IN TRUE MOTION BEFORE AND AFTER THE 90° HEADING CHANGE) IMMEDIATELY PRIOR HALF WAY THROUGH HEADING CHANGE SOME TIME AFTER TOHEADING CHANGE HEADING CHANGE ‘COMPLETED HEADING CHANGE THE DP ENVIRONMENTAL FORCE AND BIAS IN PORT THRUST INITIALLY TRACKS AROUND WITH THE CHANGE OF HEADING SO THE SHIP MOVES OFF TO STARBOARD AND DRIFTS ASTERN AS THE BOW COMES FURTHER INTO THE ACTUAL SEA FORCE. AS THE DP ACCUMULATES STARBOARD AND AHEAD POSITION ERRORS, SO THE THRUST BIAS GRADUALLY CHANGES TO COUNTER THE REAL CHANGE IN THE SEA FORCE AND MOVE THE SHIP BACK TOWARDS THE TARGET POSITION. Thrust is not only controlled by the integral terms and both the position and velocity controls will fight increasingly hard against the port bias as the ship moves further off target, The athwartships thrust demands can oscillate quite wildly, particularly as the thrusters are also responding to the yaw control and so the operator's picture ofall this can seem quite bewildering. I had often wondered why the DP sometimes directed thrust away from the target when the ship was rapidly moving further off position but itis the logical consequence of how the integral term works to bias the thrust. ‘The solution to this problem is to ensure that the ship's centre of rotation is the midships point then put the heading alteration in as a single step of 90° at a fairly low yaw rate, using the fast lea command to climinate the port bias in the thrust after the heading has altered by about 30°. The ship will still struggle to hold station in the initial stages of the swing as the athwartships thrusters will be providing the turning moment whilst thrusting against the sea forces that are still predominantly on the port beam. The situation, however should start to ease considerably as the ship's head comes around to within 20° of the real sea forces and the ship should start tracking back onto station. It is not @ good idea to make the alteration in steps, as the intermediate headings are likely to be unsustainable so itis best to keep the ship swinging all the way once the change has been started. ‘What can we do if the fast learn’ option is not available? The short and unhelpful answer to this {question is ‘nota lot whilst the ship remains in DP control, though there will be an overwhelming desire to do something in response to all the chaos of alarms sounding and big belches of black smoke ‘coming out of the funnel exhausts. (I know, Ihave been there and done that.) One action commonly taken is to reset the target to the ship's current position with the ‘present position’ command in the ‘change position’ menu. This may momentarily easc the thrust as the starboard position error is set to zero but it also decreases subsequent starboard position errors, as they will now be measured from the new target. The decay rate for the integral of position error will consequently be severely reduced, s0 using the ‘present position’ command only causes the ship to move even further to starboard of the initial target and/or stay there longer before the DP ‘forgets'the port bias in the thrust demands, ‘The only way to instantly wipe the DP memory without a fast learn command would be to quickly transfer control from DP to joystick auto’ and then back again to DP at some time around step ‘3’. This is unlikely to make the situation any worse, as the ship is more or less out of control between steps 4" and 'S' and it should reduce the ship's wander off to starboard. It would be easy to say that the ship's officers should not get themselves in situations such as described above but these things do happen. Obviously holding station against a rising beam sea is not a very good idea but there may well be over-riding operational requirements for doing so, such as making a lee for recovering an ROV or some other smaller vulnerable craft. These operations can often over-run their expected duration, particularly if the weather is rising when problems are most likely to occur.The ship's heading whilst holding station Maintaining the ship's head into prevailing seas becomes essential for good position holding as the ‘wind and sea forces rise. The forees of the wind and waves are minimum when the ship meets them on the bow whilst the main engine is the ship's most powerful thruster. (It always used to surprise me how litle power was needed to maintain minimum steerage way into head seas, even in gale force nine winds, when | worked on small survey vessels in the North Sea oilfields.) ‘When the wind is off the bow it also produces a turning moment pushing the bow further to leeward as the airflow makes an angle of attack with the hull topsides that then act as a large airfoil. The resulting aerodynamic force acts forward of midships and most ships tum beam on, or nearly so, to the wind. ‘The distribution of superstructure will effect the final point of balance but it would require an extremely large topside area near the stem to make a ship 'weathercock’ up into the wind. (Traditional power driven fishing vessels used to achieve this with a fore and aft sail on a mast at the stern). Ifa ship ‘fall off the wind it will drift downwind sideways and position control willbe lost. There is a difference of direction between the sea and wind forces, which increases with wind strength, This is due to ‘wind shear’ caused by friction between the airflow and the sea so wind direction and force change with height above sea level. The obvious heading is somewhere between the two forces and itis better to keep the wind slightly on one side as this ensures that any corrective turning moment is only applied one way. Itis easier to vary a turning moment in one direction rather than repeatedly reverse it. The, wind speed and direction, however, varies between gusts, when the difference in direction between the wind and seas increases, and lulls, when the two directions are closer together. ‘This variation increases with wind force so it can be a fine balance to find a heading to keeps a strong ‘wind on one side without a gusting too far off the bow and causing the ship to fall off its heading, Again, the ship will struggle a lot less if the midships point is selected as the centre of rotation when holding station in moderate to rough seas. HOI STATION IN STRONG. THE SHIP IS HOLDING A HEADING WITH THE SEA FORCE FINE TO PORT AND KEEPING THE WIND TO STARBOARD If the DP is receiving wind speed and direction inputs from the anemometers, the forward feed term of the control equations can produce thrust demands to counter the forces and turning moments of the wind acting on the ship's exposed topsides. This should reduce position and heading errors and their corresponding integrals and so the DP will consequently see’ a smaller environmental force that is just due to the sea forces and current. This could make a considerable difference to the DP ifa large heading change is to be made in the circumstances described on the previous pages. A strong wind directly on the beam produces much of the force that is pushing the ship off position whilst average ‘turning moments are almost entirely due to the wind, so the control equation integral terms will be very low if the feed forward term is receiving wind data. If the wind is not inputted then the DP will eventually work out the same thrust for itself through the position errors but the integral term will be ‘much greater. Position keeping will be much worse during large heading changes if no wind data is being put into the feed forward terms of the control equations, so the windward anemometer should always be selected in any condition other than ‘light airs.‘The minimum power mode ‘There isa belicf that making frequent small heading changes is bad practise as it downgrades the DP's ‘environmental model, but this is not true if the changes keep the wind and sea forces in the same direction, relative to the bow. The ship's head is the DP's reference frame so the DP retains the same environmental model if the forces remain constant in the same direction, relative fo the bow regardless of how the ship's heading has been changed. Nearly all DP systems have a ‘minimum power! mode that continually alters the ship's heading into the environmental force automatically, to minimise the thrust required to hold position. This athwartships integral term is used as a heading change command, ‘hich will always turn the ship's head in the direction of the athwartships thrust bias. The ship's head. consequently will wander about as the DP changes the set heading to eliminate athwartships thrust so it unsuitable for operations requiring tight heading contro. It is ideal though for drill ships working in ‘open waters, as it allows them to continually ‘weather cock’ to changes in the wind direction. Minimum power mode is not really appropriate in light winds as the heading will just go around in circles with the DP chasing every little arbitrary change in the small athwartships thrust bias. ‘Tracking an ROV using DP ‘When a vessel is using DP to follow an ROV moving along a defined route, such as a submarine cable ot pipeline, itis tempting to use the tide, current, or wind to push the vessel along at minimal power. This is fine until the ship has to stop because the ROV has come suddenly to a halt. The thrust will rapidly ramp up as 2,000 tonnes or more of ship tries to match the deceleration of about 6 tonnes of ROY. It is better to make the thrusters work to move the ship if unexpected stops are likely to occur. TO PU ‘NOT RECOMMENDED THE SEA FORCES ARE PUSHING THE SHIP SIDEWAYS TO PORT TO FOLLOW AFTER THE ROV. THE TRANSVERSE THRUST LOADS ARE LOW BUT THE SHIP MAY STRUGGLE TO STOP QUICKLY THE THRUSTERS HAVE TO PUSH AGAINST THE SEA FORCES TO KEEP MOVING AS WELL AS MAINTAIN THE HEADING. THE SHIP THOUGH SHOULD BE EASIER TO STOP.kin Nv P The ship's head should be adjusted so that the average thrust in the direction of the moving ROV is relatively small, as the athwartships bias will work against the ship stopping. The ship's heading can be altered to use the current more when a sudden stop is required but it takes time to swing 2,000 tons of ship and stopping can be unpredictable even with good communications between the bridge and ROV team. The forward lighting, remote camera vision and sonar onboard the vehicle, have limited range and the camera, in particular, relies on clear underwater visibility which is not always present due to the ROV disturbing seabed sediments. The vehicle is fitted with a sonar beacon, which is located by the ship's acoustic tracking system and excess umbilical is kept minimal to avoid entangling the ROV. There are several different ways of using DP to follow the vehicle. I have used all of the following three modes of operation for keeping station with a moving ROV. 1) The beacon is made the DP's target so the vessel will move to hold the vehicle at a fixed range and relative bearing. The DP is not aware that itis moving and will see the hull resistance as part of the environmental foree. Obviously, in this situation, the ROV beacon is the only PME input. 2) 'Sub follow’ mode holds the ship to a fixed position to static PME inputs whilst tracking the ROV ‘beacon which is now inputted as a mobile signal. When the vehicle moves outside a prescribed range from the ship, the DP automatically makes a position move to a new target above the ROV. The vessel then holds position to the static PME's until the ROV again moves beyond the range limit. This mode is most suited for keeping station when an ROV is used to inspect a fixed site, such as a well head, and so is remaining within a relatively small area. The ship does not have to continually thrust in different directions as the vehicle moves about various underwater structures. 3) The DP can be simply given a position change in a direction and ata speed agreed between the bridge and the ROV team, who then co-operate with each other to keep the ROV within a specified range of the vehicle's lifting point. The ROV in this case is tracked just to provide its position for the operators and any data logging that is being done. It is not put into the DP and all adjustments of the ship's position, relative to the ROV, are done manually. This can be very effective if the sonar beacon signal is very erratic or weak, as may be the case when operating in deep water. Excessive thruster activity is considerably reduced but the method requires good teamwork. Good communications and mutual understanding between the bridge and the ROV team is essential for successful operation of the vehicle and often the DP operator is provided with a video monitor so that he can see some of the camera views from the ROV. Bridge officers also should appreciate that the umbilical between the ship and the ROV must not be twisted more than about half a turn. The ROV team is responsible for keeping track of both the ship and the vehicle headings but the DP operator must consult the ROV team before making changes in the ship's heading, Laying out tackle or. ‘The laying out of cable or ground tackle for an anchor on the seabed is another operation in which the moving ship may have to suddenly stop if the payout onboard becomes fou! for any reason. As with following a ROV, the same guiding principle of making the ship's thrusters work to keep the ship ‘moving applies as this will allow the vessel to stop mote quickly than if the current is pushing it along. ‘This becomes more critical as the depth of water decreases, as this reduces the overrun that the ship can travel before the payout becomes tight. Ploughing in subs cal P ‘Submarine cables and pipelines are generally now ploughed into the seabed when they are laid within the offshore continental shelf region. This is now almost entirely carried out by ships with DP control, Which causes problems as the DP 'sees' the plough tow force as an erratic environmental force. My ‘own experience is with ploughing in telephone cable, though pipeline lays will suffer similar problems except that the burial depths and consequently the forces involved are much greater. Ploughing is slow with speeds nearly always less than I knot, as seabed conditions can change quite rapidly. The ship ‘may be struggling with tow forces close to 40 t and coming almost to a halt at full power when the plough suddenly breaks free so the ship races ahead before the DP has time to realise that the situation has changed. Then the plough digs in again and the tensions rise so the whole cycle repeats itself.