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'---' 1. Introduction 1
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1
Introduction
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1.1 General Considerations. Good steering and maneu- 3. Berthing and anchoring - Making the final slow-
verability, which are sometimes referred to collectively as speed maneuvers when arriving at a pier, mooring, or
controllability, are operational characteristics required for anchorage and the reverse when departing - often with
efficient and safe ship 1 operation. The fact that there exist the aid of tugboats.
many different, desirable, and often conflicting require-
A warship's mission, be it a surface ship or submarine, will
ments for good steering and maneuverability make determi-
'---' include 1-3 above, but may also include conflict situations,
nation of what constitutes a good design a difficult endeavor.
'---' often in the high seas, where extreme and rapid changes in
There are many words commonly used to describe the
course are necessary for survival. For these ships, the ability
\..., topics discussed in this volume. A strict definition of the
to perform these extreme maneuvers often dominates the
word maneuverability implies the inherent characteristics of
'-' consideration of steering and maneuvering.
the ship that allow maneuvering. Controllability is a more
In phase 1, the open seas, the ability to maintain course is
'-' boeneral characteristic of the ship which includes not only
so fundamental that almost all ships either through design
the ship's physical characteristics, such as hull form , rudder,
'---' or modification after construction have reasonable steering
steering gear, propeller, etc., but also the ability of the person
capability in open ocean conditions in low to moderate sea-
(or control system) steering the ship to perceive the current
ways. However, in heavy seas steering may become diffi-
state of the ship, its environment and, using this informa-
'-' cult. For instance, fast, light-displacement vessels in a heavy
tion, to adjust the controls accordingly to cause it to change
following sea may have serious difficulty in maintaining
course or speed. Controllability, therefore, involves more
course. Heeling due to steering in significant seas may also
'-' than the physical characteristics of the ship and includes
be a problem. It must be noted that there have been cases
human factors, instrument displays, radars, ergonomics, de-
where ships have had egregiously bad course control charac-
cision making under uncertainty, etc. Pilots often lump all
teristics. Fortunately, almost all recently designed ships are
these aspects together and simply refer to the ease or diffi-
reasonably well behaved at sea.
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culty in "handling" a particular ship.
History has shown that most accidents occur in phase 2,
The inherent characteristic maneuverability of a ship is a re-
the port approach or departure. In this phase the ship is likely
sult of choices made by the naval architect during design and
to be in waterways with restricted water depth and width
\..., this is the focus of this volume. Maneuverability comprises two
with complex currents and bathymetry. It is likely to require
complementary aspects called "steering" and "maneuvering".
maneuvering around other ships or fixed obstacles, some-
In plain terms, steering describes the ability of a ship to main-
times in situations of inclement weather and low visibility.
tain a desired heading (called course-keeping), and maneuver-
This phase has multiple opportunities for disaster and, in
ing describes the ability of a ship to change heading or speed
'---' recognition of this, most large ships employ local pilots fa-
to navigate or to avoid an obstacle, such as another ship, banks,
miliar with the area to aid in local navigation.
shoals and the like. Clearly both steering and maneuvering are
The characteristics of particular waterways can play a key
critical to the safety, economy and ease of operation of any ship.
role in determining what maneuvering characteristics are
A seagoing merchant vessel's main controllability mission
needed. Large vessels on the Great Lakes, for instance, often
is to follow a desired track from one point to another at safe
have rudders that can turn to a 45-degree angle compared
economical speeds. A breakdown of this mission includes
to the normal 35-degree maximum for ocean-going vessels.
the following phases:
This additional rudder movement has been determined use-
1. Open Seas - Sailing a given course at an ordered ful in close quarters at slow speeds in operating these ves-
speed in moderate weather or at reduced speed in ex- sels in typical waterway situations. Large vessels that are
'---' treme weather; intended to visit shallow water ports may have large beam to
2. Port approach/departure - Proceeding through straits, draft ratios. Providing a high level of maneuverability with
entrance channels, and interior channels at appropriate such hull forms can be difficult. Finally, some diesel engine
speeds; and configurations have a capacity for only a limited number of
'---' stopping and reversing cycles and this too can play a role
1 In this general context a "ship" can mean either a surface ship or in the safety of complex port approaches which require fre-
boat, or a submarine. Later in this chapter, these two rather different quent changes in ship speed and even direction of propeller
cases will be discussed separately. rotation.
2 1. Introduction
Berthing and anchoring in phase 3 often involve a num- of maneuvering amongst obstacles, we need to consider the
ber of rudder, engine, and if installed, thruster orders as the envelope of trajectories of all points on the ship, that is, the
vessel is brought to rest and tethered. At low ship speeds, ex- "swept volume" of the ship. A collision, allision 3, or ground-
ternal forces, such as wind and current, can become very im- ing will occur if this swept volume intersects contempora-
portant. For port movements and berthing this usually leads neously with that of another ship or the volume of a fixed
to use of tugboats, especially for large vessels which respond obstacle, such as a prominent feature of the bathymetry.
slowly. Approaches to single-point moorings are a common Since typical ships are nearly rigid bodies, the swept volume
exception to this because a most favorable approach direc- can be constructed with accuracy sufficient for this purpose
tion can usually be selected and only the bow must be accu- from the time history of the horizontal and vertical position
rately positioned. and orientation of the reference point in combination with
For practical ship maneuvering issues, maneuverability the three-dimensional geometry of the ship. Although most
should be considered to be the relative ability of the ship in of the discussion in this chapter will involve consideration of
various environmental and operational situations under pi- the trajectory of a single reference point and its orientation, it
loted control to change position and orientation of the vessel must be kept in mind that ifwe are dealing with possibilities
at desired rates necessary to maintain safety. To accomplish of collision, allision, or grounding that the trajectory of the
this, every ship must possess certain minimum basic quali- reference point by itself is not sufficient.
ties which can be summarized as follows: This chapter is focused on the use by the naval architect
of the trajectory information to determine the relationship
• Course keeping
• Turning ability between the maneuverability of the ship, its underwater hull
geometry and its maneuvering devices (rudders, thrusters,
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• Recovery from turning (sometimes called "checking")
• Stopping (or acceleration) etc.). This relationship informs the naval architect's selection
of the ship's configuration and components needed to pro-
These qualities are required for all relevant combinations mote safe ship operation. Finally, this volume is concerned
of ship speed, draft and trim , and operating environment with the use of predicted trajectories for other purposes, such
including water depth, wind, current and perhaps waves. as design of waterways and training of crews.
This volume is focused on the design of the components 1.2 The Goal of this Volume. This volume will present
of a ship that contribute to maneuverability and, for this four types of information: criteria for achieving acceptable
purpose, an emphasis is placed on the theory and prac- performance and trajectories, discussion of available em-
tice of predicting the trajectory of a ship. We use the word pirical and theoretical tools for the prediction of trajectories
'trajectory" here to emphasize that we are concerned with and important trajectory characteristics, a description of ex-
the time history of the path of the ship. For instance, when perimental methods used to obtain physical data needed for
a command to turn is given 2, typical ships only slowly en- these predictions, and other uses of trajectory predictions.
ter a steady turning motion. A normal ship's trajectory first While the major emphasis here is on displacement ships,
shows slight movement in the direction opposite to the de- submarines are also treated.
sired turn before gradually reaching the steady turning mo- This situation described above presents the authors of
tion corresponding to the final rudder angle. If the command this chapter with a dilemma. Course-keeping involves small
is ordered to change course or to avoid some object, then
it is clear that the shape of the whole trajectory is import-
ant, not just the final turning radius. In fact, attainment of
a steady turning radius is rarely desired during normal ship
changes to the ship's trajectory and the theoretical analysis
of this aspect using standard linearized theory is well in
hand, at least in a deep-water environment. However, ma-
neuverability typically leads to situations where linearized
-
maneuvering. theory is inadequate to use for trajectory prediction. For in-
For steering in the open ocean, it is sufficient to character-
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stance, prediction of the smallest turning circle with the rud-
ize the trajectory of the ship by the time history of the hori- der hard-over (typically at 35 degrees) causes forces on the
zontal coordinates of a single reference point on the ship and rudder and hull that depend on the motions in a very nonlin-
its orientation with respect to global coordinates. That is, ear way. Many organizations have developed sophisticated
representing the ship by a path line on the map. For the case nonlinear models that can predict the maneuvering behavior
of ships in deep and shallow water situations. These devel-
opments represent significant investments on their part and
2 In this context, command to turn means the command the mas-
they use a combination of information developed through
ter gives to the helmsman. There are several subsequent steps in-
volved. The helmsman turns the helm which, in turn, activates the
steering gear and begins moving the rudder in the desired direc-
tion. As a result, the rudder motion lags behind the command and 3 Collision implies both objects are moving at the time of the con-
it may take several seconds for a rudder to reach its desired attitude tact; allision (a word commonly used in legal cases) implies that the
relative to the ship's centerline. ship hits an object that is not moving.
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1.2 The Goal of this Volume 3
years of theoretical and experimental research. As a result, prediction of steering and maneuvering and for interpreta-
these organizations treat their models as proprietary and do tion of the results of this process. An important secondary
not make them available for publication. Thus, it is not pos- goal is to provide tools that allow the reader to readily evalu-
sible to make a presentation of state-of-the-art maneuvering ate the impact of basic design choices on trajectories during
practice in the form of a comprehensive, step-by-step good the early stages of design, when schedule and cost proba-
design procedure for these ships. That is, it is impossible to bly will not allow use of expert organizations, to help avoid
equip the reader with state-of-the-art tools needed to reliably problems and costs resulting from poor initial design choices
predict any ship's maneuvering characteristics and its ability and resulting adverse effects on the final design.
to meet the IMO regulations or other regulations. Since both model-scale and full-scale results are critical
The situation regarding submarines is somewhat different. for validating the theoretical predictions discussed above,
The "Standard Equations of Motion", including the most im- considerable attention will be paid to these elements in this
portant nonlinear terms, was published by the U.S. Navy in volume. Finally, the special demands on the mathematical
1980 and is reproduced in Chapter 12. Because actual mea- models for trajectory prediction for waterway design, for
surements of trajectories are classified, it is not possible to ship crew training, and for other uses not directly related to
\._,, assess the efficacy of these nonlinear equations in predicting ship design per se will also be discussed.
submarine trajectories. The subsequent chapters of this volume are arranged so
The authors have therefore adopted the following point of that Chapter 2 discusses the basic aspects of steering and ma-
view: It is assumed that the reader is a naval architect or a neuvering largely without equations so that a novice would
person with an engineering background and familiarity with gain an understanding of the physics involved. Chapter 3
ships. Each of the major elements that are common in all presents more detail using the standard linear equations of
'-" prediction tools will be discussed in some detail so that the motion used in steering and maneuvering since they predict
'-"
reader can appreciate not only the importance of the element the general behavior of ships in these circumstances in a
under consideration, but both the physics that applies to qualitative way. Subsequent chapters discuss various aspects
the phenomenon that the element attempts to model and its of steering and maneuvering in greater depth. The authors
impact on the trajectory prediction. It is our primary goal hope that this "layering" will allow readers interested in this
that the reader then will become an informed and sophisti- topic, both the non-technical and technical minded, to pro-
cated client when evaluating and obtaining services for the ceed to a level that serves their needs.
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