Giving ports a wider berth
The new programme could be used to allow ports to broaden the scope of their quay construction.
Construction in port areas may gain from the development of an analysis programme which calculates how to build safe berths that are located in especially harsh conditions.
The system, called Optimoor, is at present in use by ports and harbours on mooring layout analysis as well as some quay designs. However, although it can take on slow variations in the forces on a ship of the sort that come from wind and another passing vessel, as well as some of the minor reflected waves found in a protected harbour, it is to benefit further from development by cooperation between BMT Argoss and Tension Technology International (TTI) to make it suitable for greater wave heights.
David Hurdle of BMT Argoss explained, “This is going to make it easier to look at different areas of a terminal with an eye to safe berthing. But further, it will be suitable for assessing berths at jetties which aren’t protected by breakwaters and sea walls.”
What makes this new cooperation particularly useful is that there is a growing tendency to put terminals in exposed areas, under much heavier environmental conditions. Not only does being able to calculate how to best utilise a local seaport give operations in emerging markets an economic leg up, it can also tell port planners what advantage large scale civil works like building a breakwater will really give on board the ships themselves.
Nick O’Hear of TTI explained that when a ship responds to wind or to currents, the forces vary relatively slowly, so when a wave arises at the ship’s hull, there are other forces that will counteract its effect. “Some of these are on board while others come from the environment, such as the body of water lying on the other side of the vessel. For example, if the ship moves in an oscillating pattern, there are hydrodynamic forces that dampen the wave motion.”
Although the ship mooring lines are the responsibility of the ship, these can be highly loaded and a port simply can’t rely on the lines to be perfect. But any terminal would be extremely unhappy if a ship broke free of its moorings and was allowed to create havoc.
Mr Hurdle says, “Firstly, the system can make sure the various fenders and bollards are well laid out for the particular range of ships that will be berthing at a particular quay. A port operation that has the Optimoor system can see if a particular ship can safely stay at the terminal without problems, and what kind of environmental factors would make it a hazard.”
The system also helps with another ongoing issue, mooring lines. Of all the injuries to crew and port workers, some 60% of them involve lines of one sort or another and nine out of ten of these cases are to do with them being wrongly set. It also helps to decide when the mooring lines have to be tended, as it’s often the case that the line lengths need to be changed during loading or unloading operations.
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