Manoeuvring prediction of pusher barge in deep and shallow water

This paper presents an experimental investigation on the manoeuvring characteristics of a pusher-barge system for deep ( H/d>3) and shallow water ( H/d=1.3) condition. Since, the operation of pusher-barge mainly concentrates on confined waters, there is a need to predict and analyze the manoeuvring characteristic of the system for a safe and acceptable performance. A time domain simulation programme was developed for this purpose. A series of model experiments were carried out to determine the hydrodynamic coefficients using a planar motion mechanism (PMM). The time domain simulation shows the manoeuvring characteristic in the form of turning circle trajectories and zig-zag manoeuvre based on the hydrodynamic coefficients, which were derived based on experimental results. The manoeuvring characteristics in shallow and deep water conditions were compared through the simulation results. A comparison of simulation results based on experimental and empirical driven coefficients for both conditions shows that the experimental coefficients gave better manoeuvring characteristics for both turning circle trajectories and zig-zag manoeuvre.