An integrated empirical manoeuvring model for inland vessels

Ship manoeuvrability is important for navigation safety. However, few studies have been specifically carried out for inland vessels. Since most of the empirical methods were generated based on databases of seagoing ships, the usability of these methods for inland vessels is doubtful. The objective of the present work is to assess the existing manoeuvrability models and find the most suitable ones for inland vessels. Furthermore, these models are integrated into a single new model that can predict the manoeuvring behaviour of benchmark inland vessels without extensive experimental tests. The method aims at inland ships of typical dimensions in the Yangtze River (inland ships on European waterways have different dimensions), which is characterised by a large water depth. After preselecting the most promising methods through reviewing literature, a selection of the empirical methods for hull forces and moments is performed by comparing simulation results to model-scale free-running experiments of various turning and zigzag manoeuvres. Considering the large variety of rudder configurations for inland vessels, this paper describes a procedure of using 2D open-water RANS results to calculate the rudder forces and moments. Accordingly, hydrodynamic coefficients of benchmark rudder profiles are provided to apply the proposed procedure for different rudder configurations.