Experimental measurments of movements and mooring forces of a ship under wave action

Abstract

This paper presents a series of tests on a reduced physical model to reproduce the behavior of a moored oil tanker. The measurement techniques used and all the instrumentation are presented. Data analysis techniques are also presented. The objective of the tests is the characterization of the incident marine agitation and the response of the ship, including the movements according to 6 degrees of freedom and the forces in the mooring system. The tests were carried out in one of the tanks of the Marine Hydraulic Pavilion of the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering, using for the generation of marine agitation a batter capable of generating irregular waves. The vessel used is a scale model of the "Esso Osaka" tanker with a length of 3.43 m, a width of 0.53 m and a maximum draft of 0.23 m and is lying in terminal A of the Port of Leixões. The entire port area was built at 1:80 scale, including bathymetry and port structures. The waves are generated outside the port to the bathymetric of -20m ZHL (zero hydrographic of Leixões). Several sea states were simulated with irregular waves with periods between 10s and 16s and significant wave heights between 2m and 6m. The vessel is instrumented with an optical motion capture system according to the six degrees of freedom, composed of 4 cameras of high resolution that allows to follow the position of several targets placed in the ship and 6 load cells to measure the forces in the moorings and defenses. The measurement of free surface elevation was performed with a set of resistive probes and an ADV.