This photo shows the Markeysupplied winch for Crowley's Response, with the below-deck components in grey.

Photo courtesy of Markey Machinery.

By Barry Grifn and Gary Nishimura

HOW TO DESIGN A BIG NEW WINCh

DESIGN METHOdOLOGY OF WINCHESFOR USE IN DYNAmIC SEAS
BY BARRY GRIFFIN anD Gary NiSHimUra

s in most businesses, winch and deck machinery builders often focus their efforts on specialty areas of the marine market in which they command a deep knowledge of the engineering and customer requirements necessary to provide reliable long term service in their chosen niche. This knowledge derives from years of innovation, trial and error, and nally the methodical adherence to the design rules, carefully carved in stone tablets, that provide some measure of certainty and security as new engineers and projects enter the scene. Perhaps this process has not changed since humankind rst sketched in sand and committed the result to animal skins. What is signicant and relevant to the world of deck machinery as we move ahead in an age of increasing complexity, safety and security are the use of new materials such as HMPE ber ropes, the success of marine rated variable frequency electric drives in many machines as a viable alternative and improvement over hydraulic systems, new computer based design tools and production machinery, and of course our ability to communicate quickly and globally, including in the following design example, our ability to observe in real time the inner workings of our customers deck machinery,

winches, and ropes over the Internet. When the customer arrives in the ofce with a new set of plans and opportunities beyond the current state of any companys current machinery or knowledge, one can say either Too risky, no thanks, perhaps wed like to study it further, etc or Lets get going! Both reactions are legitimate and understood as appropriate among customers and suppliers with long-term relationships. Markey Machinery Company accepted the opportunity and challenge to design a new class of winch for ship handling service on the open ocean. The following is intended to illustrate to the marine community the way deck machinery engineers are solving todays challenges. Industry Recommendations Markey Machinery is in the nal design stage of winches to be installed on new, purpose-built tugs to be stationed at the Costa Azul LNG terminal in Ensenada, Mexico and operated by Moran Towing and their partner Grupo Boluda. The winches will be placed on tugs designed by Robert Allan Ltd. and intended to maintain an average of 70 tons line pull in 3 meter seas with a 10 second period. Two electric drive motors are capable of delivering 760 hp during the inhaul
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and expand, they continue to push the limits of winch and rope technology, traditionally based on calm-water assumptions. The LNG industry is currently driving the need for ship handling capabilities in unprotected waters. Several offshore terminals have started construction, and many others have been proposed and are awaiting approval. Their protability will depend on routine service of LNG tankers in exposed ocean conditions. The large waves frequently encountered at many sites will induce signicant relative motions between the tug and tanker, making conventional winch and rope technology inadequate. These applications will typically require a new generation of equipment, designed specically to accommodate these dynamic environments. But with limited information, on both the environmental conditions and relative ship motions, how does one design for these new applications? A natural instinct is to compare a new situation with previous experiences- in this case, a physical sense of the motions induced by waves under a boat, a rough idea of the force required to move an object through water, and a feel for the tension present in a line, based on its behavior. These experiences allow educated guesses by those working in similar conditions. Talking with others in the industry, we polled the vast experiences of naval architects, marine engineers, and tug operators, gathering a range of opinions and recommendations. In many cases, the preliminary design process would stop here. With the seasoned experience from multiple perspectives in the industry, there is often As winches become more complex, so do the controls in the wheelhouse. Photo courtesy of Markey Machinery. enough evidence to justify a nal design without going any further. However, in this case, energetic seas. Although the sea state tions have been focused around ports we were surprised by the widely varied dynamics are somewhat less demanding and harbors, in somewhat protected feedback, with total power estimates than those at Costa Azul, the abilities waters. Although these locations had ranging from 115 hp to 2,000 hp. In and limitations of the Response in these their share of challenges, they seldom addition, this must be weighed against conditions provided important feedback include large, unsuppressed waves. As the cost and consequences of failure. for preliminary design estimates. a result, there has been relatively little Liqueed natural gas, as an energy To further rene the performance attention paid to the operational requirecarrier, poses unique challenges. The requirements, a 1:24 scale, self-proments of ship handling in open seas. fuel is a gas at atmospheric conditions, pelled ASD tug model was connected However, as these operations evolve making it more difcult to contain
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cycle, and water-cooled slip brakes are used to maintain a maximum of 100 tons during payout. Our design effort for this new and unique winch application began with a survey of opinions and recommendations from the industry, which gave widely varied feedback. We also drew from past experiences gained from the asymmetrical render-recover winches installed on the Crowley Response, the Bulldog of Crescent Towing, and the Edward J. Moran of Moran towing. While these projects shared many design elements, their dynamic performance was intended to maintain line tension for maneuvering and repositioning purposes, not to accommodate dynamic sea states. Nevertheless, the Crowley Response, operating in the Strait of Juan de Fuca with a 250 hp winch drive, is routinely tested in

to a rigid panel, extending below the waterline to simulate the tanker. Nearly 100 tests were run in a 100-foot long towing tank with a wavemaker at one end. These results were also compared with a second model test, based on a larger model and tested in a larger and deeper wave tank. After extensive analysis of the data, a maximum speed of 1.5 meters per second and a maximum acceleration of 1.5 meters per second squared were found. Using the formula for power, maintaining 70 tons line pull at this speed requires more than 1,250 hp. Utilizing the asymmetrical operation, this was reduced to 760 hp. The result is a relatively low power winch, capable of averaging high line tensions in dynamic sea states. Tugs for LNG Terminals Historically, shiphandling opera-

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This series Illustrates the force relationship in the hawser between tug and ship in calm water. Graphics by Barry Grifn.

than liquid fuels, and increasing the risk of explosive mixtures collecting in conned areas. Under storage conditions, it also has a relatively low density, requiring larger, but lighter ships that are more difcult to control in windy conditions. On a global scale, the LNG business is emerging during a turbulent time of energy concerns. As a major component of todays available energy forms, it is intertwined with the political, economic, environmental, and social repercussions of worldwide energy use and supply. These factors make LNG handling a challenging, yet critical operation. Combined with the lack of denition for the winch design, it was clear that further analysis would be required. In this application, a fundamental requirement to a successful design is a good understanding of the relative motion between the tug and the tanker in dynamic seas. Starting with simple approximations based on wave height and period, some rough calculations establish a general order of magnitude for the required speed and power. The tanker is assumed to be stationary, greatly simplifying the problem. Assuming the waveform can be represented by a sine wave, the speed of the tug in the vertical direction is approximated by the derivative of the position function as follows. Vertical Position = .5 (Wave Height) Sin (b t) Vertical Speed = .5 b (Wave Height) Cos (b t) Where b = 2 / Wave Period, t = time, and Wave Height is measured from trough to peak.

This represents the vertical motion, which becomes a signicant factor when the tug is near the tanker and the line lead slopes sharply upward. The power can then be calculated based on the required line tension and the maximum speed from the function above. The general equation for power is: Horsepower (hp) = (line tension) (speed) / Where hp = (Newton) (meters per second) / 746 = (lbf) (feet per minute) / 33000 And = Overall efciency, including mechanical losses and auxiliary devices (pumps, levelwinds, etc) The result is the winch power required to maintain a specied line tension as the tug moves vertically. This can be a convenient gure for rough sizing; however it neglects many important factors. The horizontal movement, or surge, is equally important at short line lengths, and dominates the relative motion when the tug is at greater distances from the tanker. The rolling and pitching motions can be signicant in nearly all positions. Additionally, the tug does not exactly follow the waveform due to the inertia of the tug and the forces exerted by the propulsion and the line. These effects are not easily interpreted from the waveform and are driven by complex hydrodynamic properties of the tug hull. The acceleration capabilities of the winch must also be considered since these motions are not constant. Oversizing the motor can help ensure sufcient line pull when motions are somewhat unknown. However, this increases the inertia of the winch drive,

often reducing its acceleration and its effective speed in dynamic conditions. Finally, the waveform itself is not a pure sine wave as assumed above. Reected and rouge waves quickly add irregularities that are nearly impossible to predict. Model Testing To obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the tug motions, as well as the line tensions from shock loads (resulting from slack line coming taut), model testing provides valuable insight. Accelerometers, placed on a self-propelled tug model, give detailed information about the various motions. In addition, force sensors measure the line tensions experienced by the model. Although shock loads are known to generate high line tensions, we were amazed to measure an equivalent of 552 tons as the model surged forward, and then aft, pulling the line tight. To prevent these dangerous conditions, the winch must inhaul and payout line to match the relative motion of the tug and tanker. At the same time, it must also apply the line tension required for maneuvering. It can be seen from the formula for power that as the speed increases, so does the power requirement for a given line tension. Therefore, with larger waves and shorter periods, even moderate line tensions can require excessive and unrealistic power levels. To reduce the power requirements, an asymmetrical operation is used, similar to the techniques employed in deep-sea rod and reel shing. In shing, the star-drag pays-out line at
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Note the increase in hawser tension as a result of more tug weight placed in the bight of the line with tug working closer to the ship.

a high tension level. The sherman then inhauls the line at low tension. The pull on the sh varies from a high tension to near zero, averaging somewhere in the middle. On the tug, because it is easier and cheaper to dissipate energy as heat rather than to generate it from fuel, the line tension is increased during pay-out and reduced during inhaul. The result maintains the average line tension, but reduces demand from the tugs engines. In both cases, the maximum line tension is limited by the connection; the line itself, or the end ttings. Therefore, to increase the average tension, the low tension (inhaul) part of the cycle must be increased. For the winch, this denes the power consumption of the drive system. Real World Conditions To establish the nal requirements of winch performance, empirical formulas based on the model tests are used. The tug is seen here as a spring-mass system, where the spring represents the rope and waves, while the mass includes the tug and the displaced water. Most parameters can be scaled accurately to represent real world conditions. Physical size, mass, speed, acceleration, and momentum can be easily interpreted from the model tests. However, dampening constants, related to the wave size and speed, are more difcult to scale since the behavior of a wave differs with its size. Although good, these parameters are not perfect, leaving a small margin of error. Numerical Modeling is a promising alternative to conventional analysis. Initially, it still requires model, or fullscale testing to establish specic parameters. However, once dened, the simulation can be modied to simulate different scenarios for sea state, tugs, and operational requirements. This allows a very fast analysis of new projects for bids and proposals. We are currently developing a proprietary program that combines a mooring simulation with a ship motion simulation. The mooring simulation considers the

spring and mass behavior of the line and the tug, accounting for the inuence of the line tension on the tug motion. The ship motion component considers the dynamic behavior of the tug in open seas, with relative speed to the passing waves. By merging these two functions, we hope to form a single program, capable of simulating any combination of winch, tug, and sea state. From educated guesses, to model tests, to numerical simulations, approaching the problem from different angles minimizes the chance of misconceptions and oversights. With multiple analysis giving similar conclusions on performance requirements, we are nally ready for the detailed design and manufacturing stages. When the rst machines are installed early next year, well begin accumulating real world experience, using the winch drive to record and send real-time operational parameters via the internet. Combined with the feedback from tug operators and crews, the design will see continual development as a new set of stone tablets are carved for a new and demanding environment. Barry Grifn is a Harvard graduate with more than 20 years of engineering and sales experience in the marine equipment business. Since 1992 he has logged more than 850 ship-days observing winch and vessel operations specializing in high performance winch and rope systems as a manufacturers representative for Markey Machinery Company, Puget Sound Ropes, Smith-Berger Marine, Ocean Spar Technology, and PERKO Commercial. Gary Nishimura is a native to the Pacic Northwest and a recent graduate from the University of California, Davis in Mechanical Engineering and Material Science. He started with Markey Machinery just more than a year ago and has enjoyed his exposure to the marine community and the complex challenges of off-shore ship handling.

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