Container vessel maneuvering model in shallow waters and assessment of maneuvering coefficients through system identification

Abstract: A vessel operating in the real world has to overcome wind, waves and ocean currents. The result of all the above is a motion of 6 degrees of freedom (DOF). Typically, for the maneuvering phase, the Newton-Euler equations are used to derive the equation of motion of the rigid body and the maneuvering theory to model the external forces and moments acting on a vessel. The main topic in this Master Thesis is to assess the maneuvering behavior of a specific container vessel through a 4DOF model. The purpose behind this study is to investigate the differences between the expected maneuvering behavior of the vessel and the operational one. To accomplish that, raw data from the vessel’s sea trials were used and a time domain simulation model created with the sway-roll yaw movements coupled and surge decoupled. The Son and No moto maneuvering model served as the base for the motion equations. The maneuvering coefficients (MC) were firstly estimated by semi-empirical formulas using the vessel particulars. The model was validated using the Esso Osaka sea trials data. The validation was limited to maneuvering parameters such as advance, tactical diameter, yaw overshoot angle etc. The final model was used on the sea trials data of the container vessel taking into consideration the wind forces through the Blender mann wind model. Moreover, correction factors for swallow water effects were used on the MC in order to provide a better accuracy and also to allow comparison between the operational data and the simulated ones since the sea trials depth could not be considered as deep waters. Finally, a system identification procedure was perfomed in order to investigate the possibility of identifying the exact MC values of a vessel. The results were encouraging. The simulation follows the patterns of the raw data relative accurately. In addition, the swallow water corrections provided enough evidence of the different behavior of the vessel depending on the depth under keel. From the SI side, a list of issues were encountered like parameter drift, multicollinearity and cost function prone to local minimum. A series of different procedures and algorithm proposed to overcome those difficulties and the results were promising.