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Manoeuvring model and simulation of the non-linear dynamic interaction

between tethered ship and tug during escort

Conference Paper · October 2017

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Manoeuvring model and simulation of the non-linear dynamic interaction
between tethered ship and tug during escort.

B. Piaggio, M. Martelli, M. Viviani & M. Figari

Dept. of Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications, Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering (DITEN)
Scuola Politecnica — Università di Genova, Genova, Italy

ABSTRACT: When dealing with towing and Escort operations – indissolubly – a wider and complete mod-
elling of the involved dynamics becomes fundamental, on both ship and tug side, even more so making un-
avoidable the need of correctly ponder the cables constraining coupling. With the aim to better understand the
peculiarities of tug-ship interaction, a 6-DOF time domain simulator comprehensive of the propulsion dynamics
has been developed, across the inter-connection imposed by the towing-line. Particular attention is focused on
discovering the operational capabilities of the tug in exerting a force on the assisted ship during Escort, and
the subsequent great influence that the reaction makes on the tug handling and effectiveness. A conceptual and
critical discussion stands out, preparing the ground to future design strategies and hinting different solutions to
be investigated, directly facing the operative profile of the vessel.

1 INTRODUCTION the tow-line with the thrust. Their main performance

A whichever ocean-going vessel requires the assis-
tance of tugs whereas its manoeuvring capabilities
could result particularly reduced and limited or if —
some way — certain geographical constraints in the
seaway to be traced or meteorological circumstances
would impose it. In fact, the abilities in governing the
ship result immediately decayed especially at least in
two scenarios: or in the case the navigation velocity to
be sustained has to be so far reduced to turn the ves-
sel unstable or uncontrollable, i.e. in many scenarios
of access to harbours, channels, mooring and dock-
ing operations, or else in the case the ship incurs in a
whichever sort of mechanical fault in the propulsion
or in the means of govern.
In such a broad panoply of scenarios, the towing
service principally concerns the partial or total han-
dling of the ship, whether in confined waters, or open
seas and oceans, either on-line or off-line. In function
of the velocity of the ship, fundamentally two differ-
ent methodologies of towing are discerned according
to the means of propulsive allocation logics: the Di-
rect and Indirect Towing.
The Direct Towing Mode involves tugs with high
manoeuvring capabilities at low speed, characterized
by relatively small sizes, handyness and minimal ap-
pendix configuration. Those are enabled to provide
push and pull flexibly, for an all-around 360 de-
grees, particularly in confined waters, in function of
the design specifications of bollard-pull, by aligning
characteristic therefore is the installed power on board
(Hensen 2003).
The Indirect Towing — instead — is targeted to aid
sailing ships during the navigation in an intermediate
range of velocities in-between the harbour manoeu-
vres and the normal design cruise speed (i.e. around
6-10 knots) in order to ensure operational safety and
— therefore — reasonably reduce any involved risk
along the route: the tug must be capable of brak-
ing and steering the running tethered ship in open
seas, straits, channels, in the optic of safe assist in
the trace-keeping the vessel along particular sea-ways
(i.e. Gray & Reynolds (2001)). In such situations, the
forces and the dynamics involved definitely result su-
perior of many orders of magnitude if compared to
the scenarios at lower speeds, and therefore partic-
ular hull and appendages geometries combined with
specific propulsive solutions are required (Allan &
Molyneux 2004, The Glosten Associates 2004), in or-
der to be able of taking advantage of the hull’s hydro-
dynamic forces to generate a towing force. Purposely
designed with increased projected lateral area, those
tugs in order to generate pull, operate forcing the hull
to drift: the forces so born, indeed, in analogy with the
theory of slender lifting bodies, are exploited by ori-
enting the bow of the tug across non-zero incidence
angle relatively to the flow, with resultants in general
+70-80 % superior to the classic bollard pull (Figs.
1 - 2 from Capt. Henk Hensen (2012) and Canadian
Environmental Assessment Registry (2004)).

100% FREESAI
LING ASSI
STED
SPEED [
Kn]
15 10 5 0
SELFCONTROLLED ESCORTI
NG SHI
P-HANDLI
NG
Figure 1: Definition of Towing Operations
While the direct towing mode is nowadays widely
known and historically consolidated in the normal
practice, the potentiality of the latter sowed the partic-
ular interest of the present investigation, in the effort
of well understanding the challenging governing prin-
ciples: across a thorough study and modelling of the
dynamics, indeed, the aim of the study is addressed
to investigate the phenomena, so that its conveniences
and disadvantages stand out, by directly facing all the
implicitly hidden issues head on.
1.1 Escort Manoeuvring
The fundamental mission of an Escort Tug is to tether,
i.e. ”escort”, ships with weak manoeuvring capabil-
ities in the transit of zones of particular interest and
hazard, with the intent of intervening, in case of emer-
gency, in their seaway-route control, so that the risk of
groundings or collisions is reduced.
In function of the vessel’s attitude and relative posi-
tioning with respect to the tethered ship, basically the
escort tug is capable of transmitting to the assisted
ship’s stern a pull force, either across the combina-
tion of braking and steering components or in a pure
mode, by imposing a constrained drift and a desired
towing angle. In that way the propulsive power is just
entrusted of the only duty of maintaining the non-zero
relative angle, and therefore is not directly implied in
the generation of the hydrodynamic forces useful in
the exploit of the towing reaction (Fig. 3). For this rea-
son the propulsion must be much more flexible and re-
sponsive in the thrust vectorialization: proper propul-
sive solutions have to be selected (Allan 2000, Robert
Allan, and B. Smoker 2013). Besides the pure braking
and steering abilities, then, many are the combined
escort manoeuvres in emergency: schematically three
primary assistance procedures can be distinguished in
the yaw-check aid, by retarding, assisting or opposing
the turn, in function of which is the need.
In the practice, the tug behaves similarly to an ex-
ternal appended airfoil rudder free to displace astern
the tethered ship, and in order to fulfil such a scope
the typical hull geometries consist of large skegs or
equivalent lateral exposed surfaces, so that the hydro-
dynamic lifting performances in enhanced when in-
clined to the flow. Subsequently — the need of mod-
100
HARBOURTOWI
NG ESCORTTOWI
NG
NTONNES
FULLYCONTROLLED 75
CRI
TICALSPEED
NGFORCEI
LOSSOFCONTROLABI
LITY
DI
RECTMETHOD
50
TUGASSI
STANCEREQUI
RED
STEERI
25
I
NDI
RECTMETHOD
0
0 5 10
SPEED I
NKNOTS
Figure 2: Direct and Indirect Towing Comparison of a 40t Tug
elling the tug’s manoeuvring at high speed and at
large drift angle arises, to be subject later on to the
towing cable constraint.
1.2 The State of the Art
Consequently to various accidents occurred in the last
decades, raising pressures pointing to an improve-
ment in terms of safety of the maritime transporta-
tions pushed to the introduction of the Escorting ser-
vice, since the common cause of such casualties was
ascribable to the lost of the propulsion and/or the
steering in confined waters near the shore. Collat-
erally to the economic damages, indeed, the conse-
quences of those led to disasters of environmental
nature (see Exxon Valdez oil spill 1989 in Prince
William Sound, Alaska), that yielded the USA to
draw up and draft the Oil Pollution Act in the 1990
— OPA’90 33 CFR 168 August 1994 (United States
Congress 101st 1990). This is a statutory regulation
according to which the escort by means of two suit-
able tugs of support turned to be mandatory for de-
termined classes of tankers and chemical-carriers ap-
proaching the national coastal areas.
Following up — the whole classification societies
of the shipping world (e.g. American Bureaux of
Shipping (2016)) moved on, adjusting and defining
indexes and standards of performance, editing rules
ad hoc and introducing the special ”Escort” class no-
tation with particular added care to the safety side. In-
deed transversal dynamic stability is a first order issue
and the attention of the classification societies hence
moved forward sensibly, deepening some dynamic as-
pects about the phenomena (see AHTS Bourbon Dol-
phin capsize accident). The whole definitely led to the
requirement of proper sea trials, or substitutive suit-
able numeric calculations, in order to accomplish a
measure of the performances.
The present study proposes to move the topic in
the target, moving the spotlight upstream the prob-
lem, with the aim of gathering all the technical aspects
of the tug design with the real final operative needs,
in terms of desirable specific capabilities, with the
scope of enclosing the whole picture in a unique tool.
On the one hand many aspects arise about the design
stage, such as propulsive solution selection (Kooren,
 -I
NDI
RECTTOWI
NG-
S
HIP
-FI
XEDREFERENCEFRAME
HULL
MOMENT

τ
H
TOW-
LINE
MOMENT

TPT
b1T β SHIP
HEADI
NG

δ
b3T ObT τ
TL
STEER
τ
TL
FORCE

b3
S
ObS b1
S

b2T
αH REL
BRAKE
TPs
τ
P
S
FORCE

PROP
. b2
S
MOMENT

ES
CORTTUG TETHEREDS
HIP

Figure 3: The Escort Dynamics

Quadvlieg, & Aalbers 2000, SAFETUG 2015, Jrgens
& Palm 2015) and the optimization of the static and
dynamic performances of the hull (e.g. Pure Drift
CFD computations (Smoker 2009, Allan & Molyneux
2004, Molyneux & Earle 2001)). And again both the
towing cable (Papoulias & Bernitsas 1988, Bernitsas
& Kekridis 1986) and the winch selection (R. Allan
2012, Couce, Couce, & Formoso 2015, der Laanand
Kees Kraaijeveld 2013, Griffin 2004) become matter
of interest in the dynamic coupling in-between the
vessels. On the other hand, likewise operative con-
sequences descended, in terms of pull performances
(steering and braking), safety and dynamic stability.
With such an aim the whole study is addressed to
a close-up analysis and rationalization of the com-
plete dynamics (Waclawek & Molyneux 2000, Li &
Calisal 2005, Merrick 2002, Frans Quadvileg 2006)
in terms of equilibria finding and stability assessment
(Bernitsas & Kekridis 1986), so that the development
of the aforementioned tool be means of a proactive
investigation in both the directions, i.e. optimization
of the tug concept in hull geometry, propulsive means
and towing variables across its direct repercussion on
the operability and controllability, and, vice-versa, the
opposite, identifying eventual lacks and difficulties on
the latter side resorting again to the design stage. In
order to put the groundwork to this long-term project,
here — in the first instance — the basic concept de-
sign of the mathematical model is laid.
2 MATHEMATICAL MODEL
The developed towing simulator consists of a set of
differential equations, algebraic equations and para-
metric tables that represent all the parts contributing
to the overall dynamics: the whole model is subdi-
vided in a Ship Block (i.e. Single Screw Merchant
Ship), a Tug (single or expansible to multi-tug ops)
Block and a Towing Cable Block, playing the role of
the dynamic coupling of the system kinematics.
The complex is considered to be manoeuvring in an
undisturbed, homogeneous, isotropic environment —
the still water — without any dependency from the sea
position or depth. No environmental forces are con-
sidered in this preliminary stage: those will be object
of further investigation. Then, in order to satisfy the
four quadrant demand, the physical system ship has
been decomposed in different logical blocks in which
all the mechanical and hydrodynamic phenomena in-
volved are studied in their mutual interaction, under-
taken the peculiarities of the case.
2.1 VESSEL DYNAMICS
The kinematic state of a vessel is completely deter-
mined by assessing the time-evolution of the six clas-
sical generalized coordinates η = [x, y, z, φ, θ, ψ]T
in the earth fixed n − f rame: according to Fossen
(2011) — therefore — the well known equations of
motion in vectorial form in terms of the b − f rame
(body-fixed) velocities ν = [u, v, w, p, q, r]T can be
expressed by applying the classical total force and
moment equations for rigid bodies across the opera-
tor J Θ (φ, θ, ψ).
The kinematic modelling of the vessel motions
adopts six degrees of freedom particularly because of
the non-negligible roll motion effect that exists dur-
ing the towing operations. In fact due to possible im-
portant towing angles, prominent tensions, and heavy
allocation logics of the propulsive forces, many tran-
sient scenarios in the dynamic could result critical for
the operability and stability of the tug in particular.
 When dealing with towing operations, either in the
direct mode or in the indirect mode, the need of
describing the involved dynamics regards wider do-
mains than in the classical navigation modelling in
which small drift angles are considered (u >> v). In
fact in both the cases conditions far from the straight
one are involved. On the one hand, where the full
range 0 − 180 deg of angles of incidence of the water
on the hull drifting is involved at low speed (harbour
manoeuvring), on the other hand particular large drift
scenarios are encountered at high speed during escort
(Molyneux & Bose 2007). Identically the modelling
of the propulsive forces in oblique flow becomes es-
sential.
Since the description of the forces acting on a clas-
sical merchant vessel is well known in literature, here
the attention is focused on the tug modelling, observ-
ing anyway that with the exception of the means of
manoeuvring, the modelling criteria almost overlap.
2.2 PROPULSION DYNAMICS
While in the case of a classical slow merchant ship
configuration the steering capability is entrusted to
the hydrodynamic performances of a conventional
rudder-propeller configuration, the tug here consid-
ered relieves on a twin Azimuthal Stern Drive system
(ASD), in order to enhance the steering capabilities of
the vessel.
2.2.1 ASD Propulsion
The vectorizing of the thrust is attained across the
pure rotation of the ducted fixed propeller (FP) Ka 4 −
70 19A belonging to the Wageningen Series (Ooster-
veld 1970) locally subject to the perturbed water in-
flow. In order to correctly accomplish the evaluation
of the propulsive forces, thus, a series of intermediate
kinematic variables of the fluid has to be computed,
so that the local flow field around the propeller posi-
tion is well considered consequently to the hull inter-
action. Indeed, the flow at the azimuthal propeller is
evaluated in terms of magnitude and direction, con-
sidering the relative tug motions, the propeller ori-
entation and including wake and straightening effects
(V. Ankudinov, Kaplan, & Jacobsen 1993).
In principle, consequently to the misaligned condi-
tion to the flow induced whether by the local drift or
the ASD angle in the behind hull condition, all the
classical coefficients of the propulsion chain have to
be re-considered from a local propeller-fixed stand-
point, in order to catch the right axial inflow compo-
nent of the water given the effective ASD angle. This
will result,- therefore, in the dependency of the en-
tire propulsion from the effective local axial compo-
nent of velocity at the propeller disc. Unfortunately,
a clear lack of experimental data exist from this
point of view. Therefore, some simplistic assumptions
have been made, imagining that both the straightening
and propulsive coefficients γv, γp, γr, (1 − t), (1 −
w) and ηR will (more or less smoothly) vary between
their normal straight values (valid in the range βR ∼=
0 − 30 deg) to 1 as a threshold angle (βR ∼ = 60 deg)
is approached. This implicitly assumes that the hull
will not affect the fluid when a higher drift angle are
encountered.
Once the local flow field is computed on each
turned ASD, the propeller hydrodynamic forces in
the axial body-fixed reference are hence evaluated
according to the open water four quadrant perfor-
mance of thrust and torque, CT and 10CQ , respec-
tively (FREng 2011, Oosterveld 1970).
Simplistically, since propeller functioning in
oblique flow, Cross-Flow Drag on the ducts, Load-
ing asymmetries, Propeller-Propeller interactions and
deeper Propeller-Hull interactions (Nienhuis 1992,
Brandner & Renilson 1998) still are not included in
the present level-zero modelling. These aspects will
be analysed in future by means of experimental cam-
paigns and, eventually, through direct numerical cal-
culations, because of their great relevancy and impact
on manoeuvring. Finally, a first order actuating angu-
lar velocity on the ASD angle variation is included, in
order to match and tune the steering gear functioning.
2.2.2 Shaft-line Dynamics
The propulsion plant dynamics are described through-
out the dynamical coupling between the engine and
the propeller across the shaft-line once reached the
equilibrium between the propeller request and the en-
gine provided torque. Hence the engine’s brake torque
QB reduced downstream the gear with ratio i, at the
slow shaft-end, will be Qs = iηG QB and the pro-
peller’s requested one will be QD , up to the frictional
efficiency of the shaft-line which is assessed stan-
dalone in the term Qf ric. = (1 − ηs ) Qs . Finally the
balancing equation is obtained, in which, the positive-
ness or negativity of the terms, is implicitly assigned.
The overall polar inertia I reduced to the slow shaft is
considered.
2.2.3 Engine Dynamics
Performance maps in terms of power, consumptions
and revolutions are exploited all over the working
area of the engines in order to correctly reflect the
behaviour in both design and off-design conditions,
allowing, therefore, the study of the transient steps in
an acceptable approximate way (Altosole, Figari, &
Martelli 2012). The engine control is based on prop-
erly independent designed governors on the revolu-
tion speed and propeller pitch across the combinator
law, relying on the most basic Proportional-Integral
(PI) controller on the fuel flow q̇f for sake of simplic-
ity. A continuous monitoring of the error between the
required set-point nref. and the actual value of RPMs
neng. of the engine’s crankshaft is assessed, and suit-
ably the percentage of fuel flow to be fed in order to
make zero the error is assigned and allocated.
2.3 HULL FORCES
The force break-down starts from the Oltmann &
Sharma’s 3-DOF Model (Oltmann & Sharma 1984,
T. Jiang & Sharma 1998), of which all the needed
coefficients are provided at slow speed, either for
the tanker, either for the tug, and, then, proceeds
extending the dynamics to all the 6-DOF (Martelli,
Viviani, Altosole, Figari, & S.Vignolo 2014). Hence,
the planar Ideal Fluid effect τI , the Hull Lifting effect
τHL , the Cross-Flow Drag effect τHC are evaluated
according to the generalized irrotation potential
theory (Imlay 1961), to the Prandtl & Tietjens theory
of slender lifting bodies in inclined flow, and the strip
theory modelling, respectively. The ordinary hull
resistance τRt to pure longitudinal advance is then
evaluated.
τH = τI + τHL + τHC + τRt + τG (1)
Then — following the same logic — the model is ex-
tended to 6-DOF across the additional added mass co-
efficients, the damping forces acting out of the hori-
zontal plane and the coupling in-between the horizon-
tal and vertical modes. In particular, additionally to
the classic coupling interpretation a further relevant
effect should be introduced, linking again the verti-
cal and horizontal motions: according to Kijima &
Furukawa (1998) in fact, since non-zero heeling an-
gle could generate asymmetries in the immersed hull
when the ship rolls, additional hull lift and drag forces
would arise even at zero incidence angles such as
in the case of cambered foil with dihedral angle ef-
fect (Hoerner, F., & Borst 1965, Hoerner, F., & Borst
1975)), making the full picture attractive in the case of
the drifting escort configuration. Concerning the Hy-
drostatic Restoring Forces τG , in function of the hull
geometries those are derived around the equilibrium
attitude.
Anyway — on the one hand — it is opportune to
be reminded that the simulation outcomes here re-
ported will just be correctly be interpretable and com-
parable within the reasonable limits of the tug which
is adopted: the Sharma’s tug, in fact, is a large size
oceanic tug, not intended to carry out such kind of ma-
noeuvres, but — on the other hand — all its abilities
or inabilities in bearing those are designated to spark
considerations, either in the limits of the modelling,
either in the limits of the selected tug in exploiting his
steering and braking capabilities.
By the way, on the long term side, the hull force
architecture modelling can be thought such as a cus-
tomizable parametric performance block, easily iden-
tifiable across opportune model testing either in tank,
or numerically (Bruzzone, Ruscelli, Villa, & Vivani
2015), once the hull geometries are varied. To pursue
such a scope eventual brute force systematic varia-
tions or wiser optimization problems subject to con-
straints could be later faced rigorously, making possi-
ble to have direct and bilateral sight on the final op-
erative and control side, once the any design solution
is undertaken. This part, together with the propulsion
modelling effectively constitutes the core of the dual
constrained optimization concept behind the motiva-
tions of the study here begun.
2.4 TOW-LINE DYNAMICS
With the purpose of modelling the cable several
approaches stand out, each one with different levels
of accuracy and faithfulness to reality. Among
these arise Finite Element Methods (FEM), Finite
Difference Methods (FDM), Catenary Equations,
Lump-Mass-Spring Formulations (LMS) and Finite
Segment Approaches (FSA). All these methods are
based on a particular and generalized mathematical
schemes of the problem whom formulation easily
can be extended to describe different configurations
of cables and wires, amongst mooring cables, tow-
ing lines and suspended cables. Here the catenary
method is adopted, as first simplified approach in a
quasi-static standpoint, and in particular the elastic
theory is treated, considering a linear elastic limit
around +20% of elongation before yielding.
2.4.1 The General Elastic Catenary
The word catenary is derived from the latin word
catena, referring to the shape of a chain or wire hang-
ing between two points under its own weight. Let be
a cable of length L attached to a point T PS and a
point T PT , standing for towing point at ship and tug-
end, respectively: those points will define the cable
supports and they are fixed on board the ships fol-
lowing the motions (Fig. 3). In time they will differ
horizontally and vertically about the double quanti-
ties [l(t), h(t)], whom combined with the cable’s un-
stretched length L (eventually L(t) if controllable)
define the triplet of the boundary conditions of the
problem. It is assumed the cable always belongs to
a vertical terrestrial plane passing through the end-
points, and therefore its planar representation com-
pletely defines the problem.
The equations are therefore obtained using a La-
grangian approach: starting from support T PS and
moving along the cable profile, each point on the ca-
ble is identified by the Lagrangian coordinate s along
the line with respect to the origin. Whereas the cable
is extensible and strainable, when stretched an addi-
tional coordinate p has to be introduced in order to
describe the deformed configuration. In order to fol-
low the plane in his time evolution, it is convenient
to introduce a new reference frame, the c − f rame,
in which the 2-D catenary analytically could be writ-
 bond), and not even remotely intends to describe the
h(
t) real accelerated and impulsive dynamic of a cable in
l
(t
) a multiphase fluid with wind and waves: in this way
Figure 4: Escort Stand-by Operation a future development could definitely be a dynamic
Lagrangian lumped mass modelling (Nakayama, Ya-
sukawa, Hirata, & Hata 2012).

2.4.2 Towing Parameters and Solver

The towing dynamics mainly depend on all the me-
chanical characteristics of the cable (i.e. unstretched
length L and Young Modulus E), playing on the
toughness of the response in slacking, but also rely on
the positioning of the towing points on board the ves-
Figure 5: Catenary Plane sels (T PS − ObS ) and (T PT − ObT ), conditioning
the levers available to generate the moments. Then
ten with origin fixed to the cable’s ship-end: that is immediate extensions could be faced in function of
the c = {Oc , c1 , c2 , c3 } reference, with c1 pointing to- the third boundary condition, the unstretched length,
wards the tug-end, c2 rightwards, and c3 = n3 vertical when logics of dynamic load control of the towing
(Fig. 5). winch would become subject of study when deal-
The cable is assumed to be homogeneous, subject ing with peak loading. Non-linear constitutive laws
to an uniform weight. The bending stiffness is ig- in stretching-tensioning further can be implemented.
nored, and hence a perfectly flexible cable is assumed Eventually, in function of the kind of line chosen,
Highly tensioned cables in matter, that are taut, re- nominally the mechanical properties, the minimum
quire in particular an elastic model. tensile strength σtens. is considered, i.e. the maximum
The non-linear general elastic catenary equations tension before breaking, or equivalently the maxi-
(2) hence are solved simultaneously in time in func- mum elongation break . The consitutive thresholds are
tion of the unstretched length L(t) at each step — checked constantly along the time evolution and in
given the pair [l(t), h(t)] — in order to find the hori- the case of overtake the simulation will be by default
zontal and vertical towing reaction components at the interrupted, but if it was of interest the following dy-
extremes of the line, TH (t) and TV (t), respectively. namic of the unleashed ship or tug (i.e. dangerous roll
W is the weight per unit of length, E is the Young’s angles of tug, prediction of the unleashed route of the
Modulus and A is the resistant area. ship given environmental constraints in the surround-
ing) it can be continued voiding the dynamical cou-
     pling.
TH L TH L TV TV − W

 l = EA + W asinh T

 − asinh
H TH
  2.4.3 Line’s Tension and Hawser’s Control
 W L TV L
 h= − + ...
Having the knowledge of the towing line’s dynamic

EA  W 2
behaviour all around his possible domain of existence

"  2 #1/2 "  2 #1/2 
TH L  TV TV − W
... + 1+ + 1+ reveals very useful in tracing and checking the vari-
W  TH TH
ables involved in the towing operations, with con-

sciousness of the evolution in time of those quanti-
(2) ties. In a control logic for the towing operations, those
variables immediately would gain main importance
Then, once known the geometry of the cable and once on board the tug in terms of optimal allocation and
the reaction vectors are well identified in space at the safety across the towing hawser: the check of tension-
ship and tug-end (magnitude T and orientation across ing of the line by the use of extensometers or load
the pair of horizontal and vertical angles [αH αV ], cells on the cable’s winches is clearly possible and
straight-forward is the projection (3) of each reac- normal practice, making that variable extremely in-
tion switching from the c − f rame to the respective teresting for further developments on winch logics.
b − f rame. The description of the towing dynamics
therefore is accomplished.
3 METHOD OF INVESTIGATION &
FT |b−Ref = [Rnb (φ, θ, ψ)] [Rcn (αH )Rcn (αV )] FT (3) SIMULATIONS

As result the cable dynamics is thought such as se- The typical initial condition scenario to be simulated
quence of quasi-static scenarios in the tensioning regards the tug following the aided ship, holding an
of the cable, and, when completely straightened, it in-line standby position, in which the cable is main-
will behave almost like a spring segment (kinematic tained in the limit between the unloaded condition and
 ESCORT RELATIVE TRAJECTORIES: SHIP-FIXED REFERENCE
-150 0.8 1.3 0.5 1.2 0.3
1.4
1.4 1.1 1 0.1
1.4 1.3 90° 75° 60° 45° 0.7 0
105° 30°
1.1 0.4 0.1
1.5 120° 15°
-100 0.8 1.4
135°
150°
92° 108°
0.4 1.3 83°
165° 75°
68°
-50 T*S|B 61°
53°
45°
37°
30°
[m]

Hs 19°
SHIP

0
Yrel

50

100

150
-400 -300 -200 -100 0 100 200

Xrel
SHIP
[m]

Figure 6: Escort: Tanker 10 kn - Tug 10 kn (179.4 rpm)

the loaded one, keeping ready in case of any request line’s end. By letting vary the angle and/or the num-
of support from the mother ship. In event of sudden ber of revolutions of the ASD propellers the identi-
need — in fact — the tug must be prompt in assist- fication of all the final configurations of equilibrium
ing partially or intervene totally in the handling and of the tug is made possible measuring the vessel po-
manoeuvring of the ship. Once the eventual failure sitioning and attitude and the cable’s tensioning and
recognition is aknowledged, then, the switch from the orientation: as result, the regime’s behaviour and the
standby to the operative condition must be as fast as fictitious steering and braking pull are individuated.
possible, but never losing of sight the safety and sta- Each one of those final pictures of equilibrium would
bility’s perspective according to which the chase of a practically represent instant by instant what during the
smart and smooth manoeuvre is decisive. generic manoeuvre would happen if the inertial ef-
Even more so, the loading of the cable and the fects were neglected, such as that was thought as a
rate in changing position are of fundamental impor- sequence of quasi-static frames at regime. Obviously
tance and criticality: the high drift angles attainable, this is far away from the reality in which the acceler-
with subsequent high levels of tensioning and trans- ations and the impulsive tensioning play crucial roles,
mitted pull to the ship’s stern, are enabled by the but it is considered a fundamental step in order to un-
propeller’s power and angle, and any uncontrolled derstand the pure behaviour and the abilities of the
transient or perturbation of the final equilibrium con- partially-isolated dynamical system of the tug ”hull
figuration could make the tug oscillate and traverse. + propulsion” under the tow-line’s force, purging out
Furthermore, also the way in which the allocation is any other undesired artefact. This — in a decoupling
raised, reduced or removed, highly affects the proce- effect modelling criteria — by fact is aimed to dis-
dure along the manoeuvre: in fact the assisted ship tinguish the intrinsic behaviour of the inclined hull to
loses speed and gradually the tug must adapt his atti- the flow such as an ideal limit scenario, eliminating
tude consequently while reducing speed. any effect of the tug’s dynamic control and any mis-
In order to separate and distinguish all the mat- leading transient. This approach, indeed, effectively
ters mentioned, schematically, a simplified approach reflects the testing logic adopted by the towing tanks
is carried out first, so that the tug’s behaviour could in evaluating the escort capabilities at the design stage
be studied detached from the dynamics of the ship and besides the classical PMM manoeuvring programme,
from the time variant control logics. In this way the at- with the effort of mimicking the real phenomena.
tention can be focused exclusively on the pure tug in As an example, the critical scenario with initial
a partial captive way, in a partial scenario of the entire speed at 10 kn is considered (Fig.6). Starting from
dynamics. that, the engine power is gradually increased (up to
the maximum), spanning time by time the thrusters
3.1 Escort Mimic angle domain. The set of simulations is intended to
show how the equilibrium configurations will vary, by
The ideal scenario concerns the ship sailing straight gradually taking advantage of all the available power,
ahead inexorably with constant speed, fully restrained in order to reveal which the possible maximum steer-
on the degrees of freedom and therefore insensitive ing and braking capabilities are if compared to the
of the whichever towing reaction is exploited at the bollard pull in the boosted condition, TS∗ and TB∗ ,
respectively. Subsequently, the associated maximum
breaking and steering abilities are hence individuated
at 105 deg the first and 135 deg of ASD angle the
latter. Once again must be reminded that the present
vessel is not intended to carry out such manoeuvres
in an outright escort manner, neither in the size nor in
the hull shape, and therefore different performances
from the canonical are clearly expectable, but — any-
way — it offers an interesting first standpoint from
which start for future considerations and hull imple-
mentations.
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
X/LSHIP
viously achievable dynamically, now by accounting
the complete dynamical interaction and the progres-
sive loss of speed opportune control of the tug has
to be considered necessarily in order to pursue the
sliding equilibria configurations and avert the insta-
bility threats. The manoeuvres to be faced in the re-
ality could be ideally distinguished in partial or to-
tal yaw-check support (i.e. route-keeping, either on-
line or off-line, in the event of failures or bad weather
conditions) and forced arrest in order to evade ahead
obstacles (i.e. pure stop or turning according to the
amount of lateral clearances). As an example, an in-
NON-DIMENSIONAL TOWING TRAJECTORY
t = 420 s
t = 480 s t = 540 s duced turning manoeuvre in the case of the complete
t = 360 s
t = 600 s
loss of propulsion by the tanker is reported (Fig. 7).
t = 300 s Starting at equilibrium from the speed of 10 knots,
once the propulsion and control means are lost, the
t = 240 s
tug engages the manoeuvre rising up the engines and
moving portside astern the ship so that the steering
t = 180 s force is transmitted (Fig. 7a): the position then is held
making turning the ship and slowing her down un-

til being arrested safely. Shaft revolutions and pro-

PP

1.5 t = 120 s
peller angles are progressively adapted and decreased
1 in time in order to maintain the relative positioning
and the effectiveness of the manoeuvre (Fig. 7b). The
0.5
t = 60 s induced kinematics of the ship in terms of speed loss
0 and yaw rate are illustrated in Figure 7c.
-0.5

-1
t=0s
4 CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS
-2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
Y/LSHIP
PP

(a)
The operative performance specification for an es-
800
TUG CONTROL AND TOWLINE TENSION cort tug is represented by the maximum steering and
ENGINE [RPM]

700 breaking force at the maximum speed of the escort

600 service, i.e. 10 knots. This, from the operator and
500
0 120 240 360 480 600 commercial standpoint, regards the achievement of
100 the maximum transmittable force to the ship’s stern
ASD ANGLE [deg]

0
in the most efficient way given the specific tug size:
-100
the indirect towing concept immediately pushes the
-200
0 120 240 360 480 600
dissertation in the necessity of the right representa-
300
tion of the dynamics of the coupled system ship-tug
TENSION [t]

200

100
subject to the tow-line constraint. With a view to lay
0
the groundwork for future research analysis in such a
0 120 240 360 480 600
Time [s] field, the preliminary concept design of the dynamics
TENSION BRAKING FORCE STEERING FORCE
modelling has been laid, with the forthcoming intent
(b)
10
SHIP KINEMATICS of moulding it to reality across opportune model and
7.5
numerical identification of the enclosed parameters.
V [kn]

2.5 The rationalization of the whole consist in the outright

0
0 120 240 360 480 600 comprehension of the complete coupled dynamics es-
YAW RATE [deg/s]

0.4

0.3
pecially in terms of the hydrodynamic force genera-
0.2

0.1
tion of an inclined hull run over the flow at high speed
0
0 120 240 360 480 600
up to very large drift angles and the relative ability to
Time [s]
transmit it to the assisted ship across the towing line:
(c) suitable devised tank trials necessarily descend.
Figure 7: Escort Full DOF Turning Indissolubly either the hull geometries or the
propulsive choice affect the ability of the tug to
3.2 Escort Full DOF achieve a desired configuration, pointing out the need
of considering the problem sequentially at different
When the fully released DOF scenario has to be faced, levels of accuracy: the intrinsic hydrodynamic be-
immediately the spectra of dynamics becomes wider: haviour of tug’s hull in fact cannot disregard the
whereas some kinematic configurations where pre- propulsive allocation means and so vice-versa, play-
ing crucially both on the manoeuvrability and han-
dling of the vessel. The resulting problem becomes
very complex: Naval Architecture, Propulsion, Ma-
noeuvrability, Experience and Control thoroughly
merge in the ideation and realization of the optimal
modalities of towing, always keeping in mind the
mandatory safety issues.
In this sense the ideal tug to be adopted should be
able to offer to the pilot the wider realizable domain
of operability with great readiness in the response and
handling: the great forces exploitable on the tethered
ship indeed rely on the combination of the steering
and braking components and the control of the ma-
noeuvre is left to the experience and feel of the helms-
man. At least two are therefore the governing kine-
matic variables emerging looking at the steady sce-
narios: the first is the tunable amount of implied hy-
drodynamic force across the drift angle and the sec-
ond is the selectivity in the orientation of the resul-
tant on the ship’s stern, across the horizontal cable’s
angle, the whole bounded by a sector of annulus of
admissible kinematic configurations identified by the
un-stretched condition of the line and an upper elon-
gated length safely selected below the minimum ten-
sile limit. Dangerous uncontrollable and unstable sce-
narios in the tensioning of the line that could make
the tug divert from the operation and potentially en-
danger it must be avoided in terms of roll motions,
route-keeping, handling and efficiency in transmitting
the pull force.
Given the coupled configuration, the tensioning of
the line highly affects the tug manoeuvrability, un-
dermining the desirable performances empirically or
numerically predictable: the length, the elasticity of
the cable and the positioning of the towing staple
on board the tug become a matter of interest, but
even more so the right combination of hull shape and
propulsive solution becomes crucial, shrinking or en-
larging the operability of the tug already at the early
conception of the design stage. In particular lateral
exposed area and its longitudinal distribution along
the hull drifting, together with thrust magnitude are
the parameters which the designer has to carefully
determine in order to optimise the tug’s capabilities
in terms of balancing and counter-balancing available
levers in yaw with the scope of maintaining the tug
misaligned to the flow. Indeed, by correctly designing
the hull shapes, properly tuning the thrust allocation
and vectorizing the equilibria with the hydrodynamic
forces and the towing reaction, the domain of equilib-
ria could be spanned completely or not. Then the time
variant equilibria finding during the speed decaying
manoeuvre and the relative stability assessment is left
to the helmsman or to opportune control laws across
the contemplation of suitable logics, i.e. definition of
adequate objective functions to be optimized and pur-
sued.
Once defined the tug’s characteristics and the sub-
tended hydrodynamic characteristics derived from
model tests or numerical calculations, the resultant
time-domain simulator stands out congregating the
whole shades of the phenomena in an unique tool.
This — in a long term expectation — does not just
disclose to this day an immediate useful analytic and
predictive instrument intended to be hypothetical aid
whether to the planning, training or emulation of the
operations of real units undertaking dangerous routes,
but still further it reveals a powerful mean — in the
future — to be encompassed and to be explored with
the aim of concurrent design optimization in the hull
geometries, propulsive configurations and towing pa-
rameters. The whole, with the final challenging target
of individuation of smart governing logics and conse-
quent synthesis of automatic controllers, able to im-
pose and keep the assisted ship along a predefined
sea-way safely, in event of failures or atmospheric dis-
turbances.
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