A study of shallow water's effect on a ship's pivot point

Abstract

Information regarding a turning ship's pivot point has been collected, taking practical notes and ship maneuvering manuals into account as well as experimental data and simulated results, together revealing consistent behaviour when varying water depth or some ship's particulars. Results from studies already carried out using the Colombian Navy's River Support Patrol Vessel (RSPV) are included here to estimate the pivot point and contrast results with theory and available observations. Linear manoeuvrability theory was tested and the results revealed poor agreement with kinematic equations. As to the depth variation effect, full-scale experiments confirmed that the pivot point's position, when in shallow water, always varied in the same way, thereby agreeing with available pivot point information.