Pilot Revalidation
21st August 2009
Ship-ship interaction
Jonathan Duffy
Australian Maritime College
Ship-ship interaction
•Ships are in a state of balance in the water, held in position at rest by
hydrostatic pressures
•When a ship moves dynamic pressures are added to the hydrostatic
pressures
•This change in pressure over the underwater section of the hull changes
the state of balance
Ship-ship interaction
•In the same way that forces are exerted on a ship due to ship-bank
interaction forces are exerted on a ship when passing another ship
•The interaction between passing and/or overtaking ships will change the
dynamic pressure distribution over the underwater section of the ship
hulls
•This causes the ships to experience sway forces and yaw moments and
can lead to changes in ship speed
•This can result in course changes that may lead to collisions or
grounding
Ship-ship interaction
•According to Dand (1995) physical scale model tests conducted have
shown that, in general terms, ship-ship interaction varies:
•With the square of the speed
•Inversely with the distance between the ships
•Roughly as the inverse square root of the under keel clearance to
draught ratio
•This means that:
•The faster the ship moves, the worse the interaction is
•The interaction is greater for small lateral separation between the
ships
•The interaction is greater for small under keel clearances
Taken from
Dand (1995)
Head-on passing
Taken from
Nautical
Institute
•Interaction begins to be felt with the bows of both ships being pushed away
from each other accompanied by a slight increase in speed
•At the same time the ships feel a slight bodily repulsion
•As the ships pass the bow out moment turns to bow in and the repulsion
changes to an attraction
Head-on passing
Taken from
Nautical
Institute
•As the ships leave each other (small overlap) the bow out moment returns
due to stern suction.
•The bow out moment is typically stronger here than before.
•This can cause both ships to sheer away from each other
•A slight reduction in speed may occur
Head-on passing
Taken from
Nautical
Institute
•Head-on passing is quick in comparison to overtaking
•Hence the ships do not have time to fully react to the interaction forces and
moments
•Usually the dominant effects are the bow out moments as the ships begin to
pass and the stronger bow out moment once passing is almost complete
Head-on passing
•The following slide shows some measurements of interaction forces and
moments for a head on passing situation
Head-on
passing
Taken from
Dand (1995)
Overtaking
Taken from
Nautical
Institute
•As the overtaking ship overhauls the overtaken ship, two things happen:
•A small bow-in moment is experienced by both ships
•The overtaking ship speeds up and the overtaken ship slows down
•As the relative velocity between the ships is low, the ships have time to
react to the interaction forces and moments
•The overtaken ship may be caused to turn across the bow
of the overtaking ship
Overtaking
Taken from
Nautical
Institute
•If a collision does not occur, at the next stage both ships will feel powerful
bow out moments and an attraction
•This may cause the ship sterns to collide or for the overtaking ship stern to
collide with the overtaken ship forward of the stern
•During an overtaking manoeuvre the overtaking ship expriences an
increase in resistance, whilst the overtaken ship has a reduction in
resistance
References
•Dand, I.W. 1995, Interaction, The Nautical Institute, Humberside Branch Seminar, 13 th
September, The Royal Hotel, Hull Humberside, pp. 1-20
