Vessel interaction - A case study

Abstract

The growth in vessel sizes is placing ports under increasing pressure to safely and efficiently meet the demand. One major issue river ports in particular are facing is the unacceptable motions of a moored vessel generated by large passing vessels. This is causing both safety issues, where resulting breakage of lines can cause significant injury or death, and efficiency issues, where berths are required to stop loading while a vessel passes. Decisions made by port operators on what measures to take for passing vessel scenarios are typically ad hoc and based only on experience. This generic approach may fail to address important safety and efficiency issues. OMC has developed a scientifically-based model for determining optimum vessel passing speeds and distances given the prevailing environmental conditions, tidal levels and characteristics of both the moored and passing vessels. The model has been validated against full scale measurements, with excellent correlation between measured data and model outputs. The model provides port operators with a tool for developing repeatable and auditable procedures for determining safe passing conditions with optimum efficiency. A case study is presented which involves validation and design simulations of the OMC vessel interaction model at Port Hedland, Western Australia.