Project Details 08

CONTROLLABILITY OF SHIPS IN HARBOR AND NAVIGATIONAL CHANNELS

Problem Addressed :

Determination of controllability of ships in harbour which is characterised by dense traffic situations and channel restrictions.

Relevance under Sagarmala :

Determination of controllability of ships in harbour which is characterised by dense traffic situations and channel restrictions.

Why now :

Ship control is much more critical in restricted and shallow waters, given the risk of lack of control on ship and subsequent collision. Hence it is very important to study the manoeuvring characteristics of ships in water regions such as harbour, ports etc., which are shallow regions. IMO ship maneuvering criteria covers only deep water conditions. Rules and regulations should be in place as early as possible to control vessel operation in shallow and restricted waters to minimise the collision chances and subsequent harbour/marine pollution. The proposed project aims to determine the maneuvering characteristics of ships in such operating conditions. So a delay in the proposed project and its outcome implementation would be at the cost of safety of ship operations in shallow waters.

Current Status in India :

In the Indian scenario, research on ship manoeuvring is only on a very moderate scale and is confined only to numerical studies in deep water condition. Experimental facility to conduct manoeuvring studies is available at NSTL, Vizag and the simulations are done only for deep water cases. The proposed project will undertake studies on surface ship manoeuvring in deep and shallow waters.

Global Status :

In the global scenario, educational and R&D institutions working in the area of ship hydrodynamics conduct PMM and other techniques based ship manoeuvring experiments. But, again the availability of shallow water facilities for ship manoeuvring studies are rare and are limited to a few advanced centres. Studies on water depth effects on ship controllability are also scanty. The standards specified by IMO on ship manoeuvring are for deep water condition, whereas it becomes more demanding on the designer to come up with a vessel which meets the more stringent requirements of controllability in shallow and confined waterways.

Timelines of completion :

Total project duration is 36 months, with the following milestones

Key competencies and stakeholders involved :

Professional background in the area of naval architecture and shipbuilding, ship/marine hydrodynamics – numerical and experimental is key to this study. IIT Madras has an internationally reputed towing tank facility (ITTC Member) and a Planar Motion Mechanism (PMM) facility is just added to it for the ship manoeuvring studies. The specific beneficiaries and stakeholders are ship owners/ operators, shipping companies, port and harbour authorities, ship classification societies, inland water authorities, shipyards, mercantile marine department, marine insurance companies, etc.

Short Term Impact :

Smooth, efficient and safe voyage of vessels in harbours and inland waterways require complete knowledge about the maneuvering characteristic of the ships. Based on specific location studies, the maneuvering problems can be identified, studied using the proposed approach and suggestions for solution of the problem can be given, which can be a short term impact.

Medium Term impact :

The above studies can be carried out for more locations such as other ports, harbours and waterways, leading to medium term impact.

Long term impact :

Enlargement in the maritime fleet results in the accessibility of existing harbours worldwide is getting more and more complex. More detailed studies result in coming up with guidelines, rule and regulations for ship operations in restricted waterways, as a long term impact.

Physical location of the project :

NTCPWC, IITM Campus.