A Time-Domain Numerical Simulation for Free Motion Responses of Two Ships Advancing in Head Waves

The constant panel method within the framework of potential flow theory in the time domain is developed for solving the hydrodynamic interactions between two parallel ships with forward speed.When solving problems within a time domain framework,the free water surface needs to simultaneously satisfy both the kinematic and dynamic boundary conditions of the free water surface.This provides conditions for adding artificial damping layers.Using the Runge−Kutta method to solve equations related to time.An upwind differential scheme is used in the present method to deal with the convection terms on the free surface to prevent waves upstream.Through the comparison with the available experimental data and other numerical methods,the present method is proved to have good mesh convergence,and satisfactory results can be obtained.The constant panel method is applied to calculate the hydrodynamic interaction responses of two parallel ships advancing in head waves.Numerical simulations are conducted on the effects of forward speed,different longitudinal and lateral distances on the motion response of two modified Wigley ships in head waves.Then further investigations are conducted on the effects of different ship types on the motion response.

Multi-Objective Weather Routing Algorithm for Ships Based on Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization

Maritime transportation has become an important part of the international trade system.To promote its sustainable de-velopment,it is necessary to reduce the fuel consumption of ships,decrease navigation risks,and shorten the navigation time.Ac-cordingly,planning a multi-objective route for ships is an effective way to achieve these goals.In this paper,we propose a multi-ob-jective optimal ship weather routing system framework.Based on this framework,a ship route model,ship fuel consumption model,and navigation risk model are established,and a non-dominated sorting and multi-objective ship weather routing algorithm based on particle swarm optimization is proposed.To fasten the convergence of the algorithm and improve the diversity of route solutions,a mutation operation and an elite selection operation are introduced in the algorithm.Based on the Pareto optimal front and Pareto optimal solution set obtained by the algorithm,a recommended route selection criterion is designed.Finally,two sets of simulated navigation simulation experiments on a container ship are conducted.The experimental results show that the proposed multi-objective optimal weather routing system can be used to plan a ship route with low navigation risk,short navigation time,and low fuel consumption,fulfilling the safety,efficiency,and economic goals.

Applying the vantage PDMS to jack-up drilling ships

The plant design management system （PDMS） is an integrated application which includes a database and is useful when designing complex 3-D industrial projects. It could be used to simplify the most difficult part of a subsea oil extraction project-detailed pipeline design. It could also be used to integrate the design of equipment, structures, HVAC, E-ways as well as the detailed designs of other specialists. This article mainly examines the applicability of the Vantage PDMS database to pipeline projects involving jack-up drilling ships. It discusses the catalogue （CATA） of the pipeline, the spec-world （SPWL） of the pipeline, the bolt tables （BLTA） and so on. This article explains the main methods for CATA construction as well as problem in the process of construction. In this article, the authors point out matters needing attention when using the Vantage PDMS database in the design process and discuss partial solutions to these questions.

Development and Management Status of Voluntary Observing Ships in China

Voluntary observing ship （VOS） observations are international obligations that must be fulfilled by China. Currently, the number of Chinese VOSs is showing a decreasing trend, which has decreased from more than one hundred ships in the past to the current number of thirty something ships. Moreover, the observation capabilities have many existing problems, such as relatively outdated observation measures, simple observation parameters, and lack of observation data. Fundamentally speaking, the operation mechanism of VOSs lacks effective systematic assurance and protection. Consequently, these VOSs are unable to have sufficient operational capabilities and cannot effectively fulfill their international obligations.

Operational Options for Green Ships

Environmental issues and rising fuel prices necessitate better energy-etlicwncy in all sectors, The shipping industry is one of the major stakeholders, responsible for 3% of global CO2 emissions, 14%-15% of global NOx emissions, and 16% of global SOx emissions. In addition, continuously rising fuel prices are also an incentive to focus on new ways for better energy-effectiveness. The green ship concept requires exploring and implementing technology on ships to increase energy-efficiency and reduce emissions. Ship operation is an important topic with large potential to increase cost-and-energy-effectiveness. This paper provided a comprehensive review of basic concepts, principles, and potential of operational options for green ships. The key challenges pertaining to ship crew i.e. academic qualifications prior to induction, in-service training and motivation were discussed. The author also deliberated on remedies to these challenges.

Numerical Simulation and Experimental Research on Wake Field of Ships Under off-Design Conditions

Different operating conditions （e.g. design and off-design） may lead to a significant difference in the hydrodynamics performance of a ship, especially in the total resistance and wake field of ships. This work investigated the hydrodynamic performance of the well-known KRISO 3600 TEU Container Ship （KCS） under three different operating conditions by means of Particle Image Velocimetry （P/V） and Computational Fluid Dynamics （CFD）. The comparison results show that the use of PIV to measure a ship＇s nominal wake field is an important method which has the advantages of being contactless and highly accurate. Acceptable agreements between the results obtained by the two different methods are achieved. Results indicate that the total resistances of the KCS model under two off-design conditions are 23.88% and 13.92% larger than that under the designed condition, respectively.

Big data-driven automatic generation of ship route planning in complex maritime environments

With the rapid development of the global economy, maritime transportation has become much more convenient due to large capacities and low freight. However, this means the sea lanes are becoming more and more crowded,leading to high probabilities of marine accidents in complex maritime environments. According to relevant historical statistics, a large number of accidents have happened in water areas that lack high precision navigation data, which can be utilized to enhance navigation safety. The purpose of this work was to carry out ship route planning automatically, by mining historical big automatic identification system(AIS) data. It is well-known that experiential navigation information hidden in maritime big data could be automatically extracted using advanced data mining techniques;assisting in the generation of safe and reliable ship planning routes for complex maritime environments. In this paper, a novel method is proposed to construct a big data-driven framework for generating ship planning routes automatically, under varying navigation conditions. The method performs density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise first on a large number of ship trajectories to form different trajectory vector clusters. Then, it iteratively calculates its centerline in the trajectory vector cluster, and constructs the waterway network from the node-arc topology relationship among these centerlines. The generation of shipping route could be based on the waterway network and conducted by rasterizing the marine environment risks for the sea area not covered by the waterway network. Numerous experiments have been conducted on different AIS data sets in different water areas, and the experimental results have demonstrated the effectiveness of the framework of the ship route planning proposed in this paper.

Review of containership stowage plans for full routes

Containership stowage plans are a pivotal teaches in the system of container transportation.With the increasing containers shipping,planning containership stowage has become more and more complicated.So intelligent stowage planning for containerships is of great significance.An effective stowage plan may improve efficiency of transportation system.First,the progress of containership stowage plan at home and abroad is reviewed,including the latest developments,such as the application of various optimization methods and computer techniques to the problem.Then,the complexities of the problem are discussed and areas where investigations are still needed are pointed out.This will provide a reference for further research on the subject.

Path following control of underactuated ships based on nonswitch analytic model predictive control

A path following controller is developed for underactuated ships with only surge force and yaw moment available to follow a predefined path.The proposed controller is based on nonswitch analytic model predictive control.It is shown that the optimal control law for a nonlinear path following system with ill-defined relative degree is continuous and nonsingular.The problem of ill-defined relative degree is solved.The path-following ability of the nonlinear system is guaranteed.Numerical simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control law.

Radar Cross Section Prediction and Reduction for Naval Ships

Radar cross section（RCS） is the measurement of the reflective strength of a target.Reducing the RCS of a naval ship enables its late detection,which is useful for capitalizing on elements of surprise and initiative.Thus,the RCS of a naval ship has become a very important design factor for achieving surprise,initiative,and survivability.Consequently,accurate RCS determination and RCS reduction are of extreme importance for a naval ship.The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of the theoretical background and engineering approach to deal with RCS prediction and reduction for naval ships.The importance of RCS,radar fundamentals,RCS basics,RCS prediction methods,and RCS reduction methods for naval ships is also discussed.

Domain Decomposition and Matching for Time-Domain Analysis of Motions of Ships Advancing in Head Sea

A domain decomposition and matching method in the time-domain is outlined for simulating the motions of ships advancing in waves. The flow field is decomposed into inner and outer domains by an imaginary control surface, and the Rankine source method is applied to the inner domain while the transient Green function method is used in the outer domain. Two initial boundary value problems are matched on the control surface. The corresponding numerical codes are developed, and the added masses, wave exciting forces and ship motions advancing in head sea for Series 60 ship and S175 containership, are presented and verified. A good agreement has been obtained when the numerical results are compared with the experimental data and other references. It shows that the present method is more efficient because of the panel discretization only in the inner domain during the numerical calculation, and good numerical stability is proved to avoid divergence problem regarding ships with flare.

Adaptive robust dissipative designs on straight path control for underactuated ships

An adaptive robust control algorithm for ship straight path control system in the presence of both modeling uncertainties and the bounded disturbances is proposed. Motivated by the backstepping approach, the algorithm is developed by using the dissipation theory, such that the resulting dosed-loop system is both strictly dissipative and asymptotically adaptively stable for all admissible uncertainties. Also, it is able to steer an underactuated ship along a prescribed straight path with ultimate bounds under external disturbances induced by wave, wind and ocean current. When there are no disturbances, the straight path control can be implemented in a locally asymptotically stable manner. Simulation results on an ocean-going training ship ‘YULONG＇ are presented to validate the effectiveness of the algorithm.

Test Study on Current Force on Mooring Ships

In respect of an offshore berthing pillar, the test study result of current force acting on mooring ships is described in this paper. Empirical and semi-empirical relationships of current force coefficient are given according to the angle between the flow direction and the ship's longitudinal axis, which are coincident with the result of theoretical analysis.

Application of Improved Multi-Objective Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm in Ship Weather Routing

This paper presents a novel intelligent and effective method based on an improved ant colony optimization(ACO)algorithm to solve the multi-objective ship weather routing optimization problem,considering the navigation safety,fuel consumption,and sailing time.Here the improvement of the ACO algorithm is mainly reflected in two aspects.First,to make the classical ACO algorithm more suitable for long-distance ship weather routing and plan a smoother route,the basic parameters of the algorithm are improved,and new control factors are introduced.Second,to improve the situation of too few Pareto non-dominated solutions generated by the algorithm for solving multi-objective problems,the related operations of crossover,recombination,and mutation in the genetic algorithm are introduced in the improved ACO algorithm.The final simulation results prove the effectiveness of the improved algorithm in solving multi-objective weather routing optimization problems.In addition,the black-box model method was used to study the ship fuel consumption during a voyage;the model was constructed based on an artificial neural network.The parameters of the neural network model were refined repeatedly through the historical navigation data of the test ship,and then the trained black-box model was used to predict the future fuel consumption of the test ship.Compared with other fuel consumption calculation methods,the black-box model method showed higher accuracy and applicability.

Using a skillful statistical model to predict September sea ice covering Arctic shipping routes

The rapid decrease in Arctic sea ice cover and thickness not only has a linkage with extreme weather in the midlatitudes but also brings more opportunities for Arctic shipping routes and polar resource exploration,both of which motivate us to further understand causes of sea-ice variations and to obtain more accurate estimates of seaice cover in the future.Here,a novel data-driven method,the causal effect networks algorithm,is applied to identify the direct precursors of September sea-ice extent covering the Northern Sea Route and Transpolar Sea Route at different lead times so that statistical models can be constructed for sea-ice prediction.The whole study area was also divided into two parts:the northern region covered by multiyear ice and the southern region covered by seasonal ice.The forecast models of September sea-ice extent in the whole study area(TSIE)and southern region(SSIE)at lead times of 1–4 months can explain over 65%and 79%of the variances,respectively,but the forecast skill of sea-ice extent in the northern region(NSIE)is limited at a lead time of 1 month.At lead times of 1–4 months,local sea-ice concentration and sea-ice thickness have a larger influence on September TSIE and SSIE than other teleconnection factors.When the lead time is more than 4 months,the surface meridional wind anomaly from northern Europe in the preceding autumn or early winter is dominant for September TSIE variations but is comparable to thermodynamic factors for NSIE and SSIE.We suggest that this study provides a complementary approach for predicting regional sea ice and is helpful in evaluating and improving climate models.

Assessing Safety of Ferry Routes by Ship Handling Model through AHP and Fuzzy Approach

Ferry accidents often occur the result of ship handling difficulty which interfacing human, machine and environment. Therefore, a decision tool model as a comprehensive information system, based on the ship handling difficulty, needs to be developed through the combination of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy Logic System. The Fuzzy Logic System part consists of ship condition, ship handling facility condition, navigation condition and weather condition. The output of decision tool is the ship handling difficulty level in linguistic form. The simulation of model is conducted at several straits in Indonesia water. The decision tool model could be used as management information system by port authority to monitor the ferry/ship movement in real time regarding the ship handling difficulty. Further, it would be used to take some useful safety operation strategies and safety policies to improve ferry transportation safety at port water and strait water.

SYNTHETIC ANALYSIS OF IMPACT LOADING OF SHIPS IN REGULAR WAVES ON PIERS

In this paper, the results of model tests of impact energy and forces and motions of moored ships from 20,000 dwt to 200,000 dwt in regular waves upon piers are synthetically analyzed. Based on the concept of wave energy transmission and the theory of vibration, a semi-empirical formula for evaluating impact energy and forces is proposed.

International code for ships operating in polar waters:challenges to polar shipping safety rules in China

Abstract With the sea-ice diminishing steadily in the polar regions, there has been growing interest in new transit routes through polar waters using cost-effective transportation. Among the international regulators over polar shipping, the International Maritime Organization （IMO） is the leading body concerned with drafting marine safety and environmental protection rules. The mandatory Polar Code （International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters） adopted by the IMO signals the consensus among maritime states to apply compulsory rules to vessels operating in Arctic and Antarctic waters. As the standing member of the IMO and a major global shipping power, China is preparing to adopt national regulatory standards to develop an adequate vessel infrastructure and crew training system. Proceeding in parallel with the developing polar shipping industry, China will also move ahead in comprehensive collaboration with the Nordic states regarding polar issues.

Dynamic Interaction of Parallel Moving Ships in Close Proximity

Nowadays,there are many studies conducted in the field of marine hydrodynamics which focus on two vessels traveling and floating in sufficiently close proximity to experience significant interactions.The hydrodynamic behavior of parallel moving ships in waves is an interesting and important topic of late.A numerical investigation has been carried out for the prediction of wave exciting forces and motion responses of parallel moving ships in regular waves.The numerical solution was based on 3D distribution technique and using the linear wave theory to determine the exciting forces and ship＇s motion.The speed effects have been considered in the Green function for more realistic results.The numerical computations of wave exciting forces and motion responses were carried out for a Mariner and Series 60 for the purpose of discovering different Froude numbers and different separation distances in head sea conditions.Based on the numerical computations,it was revealed that the sway,roll and yaw have a significant effect due to hydrodynamic interaction.

Internet of Ships: The Future Ahead

There are many advantages of using Computer Aided Design (CAD) Systems in a shipbuilding environment: ease of design, speed of construction, use and reuse of information, etc. It is expected that in future CAD tools will advance further and allow greater information management and virtual access through smart devices. The authors of this paper talk about a new concept in shipbuilding, the Internet-of-Ships (IoS) which would have a deep impact on the ship design and production, with a huge diversity of present and potential applications.