The effect of berth blockage on berthed ship - passing ship interaction

An investigation has been conducted to quantify the effect that blockage forward and aft of a berthed ship has on the form and magnitude of forces and moment experienced by a berthed ship due to a passing ship. The investigation also focused on the influence that the change in form and magnitude of the force and moment time domain traces has on the predicted berthed ship motion and mooring loads.

This paper presents a selection of results from physical scale model experiments conducted in the Australian Maritime College's Model Test Basin facility to determine the effect that blockage around berths has on the hydrodynamic interaction forces and moment imparted by a passing ship on a berthed ship. The magnitude of the peak values of the berthed ship forces and moment for the different cases are investigated to assess the effect of the different blockages around the berthed ship.

The time domain results from the physical scale model experiments are compared to existing idealised curves, developed for open water conditions, to determine whether they are suitable to describe the form of the time domain traces for the cases tested. The time domain force and moment traces measured during the physical model experiments and the idealised traces were used as input to a mathematical code to numerically simulate the motions experienced by the berthed ship for a selected mooring configuration. The results from the numerical simulations were compared to quantify the influence that blockage has on berthed ship motions and mooring loads and to assess whether the idealised force traces are applicable for such cases.