On damping models in free and forced rolling motion

In this paper two different models for the damping moment to introduce in the rolling equation of the ship are proposed. They contain two terms, respectively linear-quadratic and linear-cubic in the angular velocity, and furthermore they foresee a non-linear term representing the dependence of the damping from the heeling angle. These models constitute a generalization of all the models up to now used in the naval literature. With the Bogoliubov-Krilov asymptotic method approximate relations, describing the decay curve of the free oscillations and the maximum roll amplitude in synchronism condition, are obtained. The analysis shows that the choice of the more realistic damping model cannot be based on the simple verification of a good fitting of the free oscillation decay curves. It is necessary to examine also the behaviour of the forced oscillations in synchronism. Finally, a plan of experiments which allows the determination of separate values for the different non-linear damping coefficients is proposed.