Slide 1

ENHANCING SAFETY
UNDERSTANDING
UNDERKEEL CLEARANCE
VIII Foro Latino Americano de Practicos
Cancun, 2015

Captain Jonathon Pearce

Business Development Manager

Slide 2

The Guidelines
The Design and Use
Component

Slide 3

PIANC WG 49
Harbour Approach Channels
Design Guidelines

Slide 4

Channel Depth factors

2.1

Slide 5

Manoeuvrability Margin (MM)

Ship factors include (f) Net UKC. Separately, a manoeuvrability margin is
checked such that a minimum clearance under the ship (between the
seabed level and the lowest average position of the ship) is provided
Therefore, only motions which affect the lowest average position of the
bottom of the ship need be taken into consideration in the calculation of
MM (= depth draught squat heel). For this reason, it is an
independent check which should always apply in channel design (and
operation)
this check of MM is separate from calculations of Gross UKC that
includes the wave response allowance
The limiting value of MM depends on ship type, channel dimensions and
alignment, and ship traffic (including whether one-way or two-way).
A minimum value of 5% of draught or 0.6 m, whichever is greater, has
been found to provide adequate MM for most ship sizes, types, and
channels.

Slide 6

Muddy Channel - Nautical Bottom

Approach
(PIANC WG30) defined the nautical bottom as the level where
physical characteristics of the bottom reach a critical limit beyond
which contact with a ships keel causes either damage or
unacceptable effects on controllability and manoeuvrability.
This guideline is
implemented
through full
analysis and
complemented
by pilot
experience of
actual ship
handling.

Slide 7

The Port
The Workplace
Component

Slide 8

Bathymetry

High Density Bathymetry

Slide 9

Bathy Nodes

DUKC
Bathymetry
Nodes

Dividing the channel

into sections for
accurate analysis

Slide 10

Channel Segment
Channel Boundary

Channel Section
300m to channel boundary
100m segment

15.7m Max
14.8m BC
Declared Depth
MM 15.0m for 300m x 100m section
Scale exaggerated by 25x for emphasis

Slide 11

DUKC
Bathymetry
Nodes

High resolution sounded

depths

10m x 10m
overlay grid

Minimum
depth

Compare DUKC minimum

keel elevation to overlay grid
cell depth

Slide 12

Methodology

Overlays PPU Chart

Overlays

Hydrodynamic model

High-resolution bathymetry of
transit area
Create 2D Grid overlay (10m x 10m)
Compute DUKC predictions of
minimum keel elevations
In each grid cell compare the
(nearest adjacent) predicted keel
elevation with the depth at this
location
Mark each grid cell as pass or
fail (go/no go)
Produce real-time overlay (Web)
Promulgate overlay to users
ECDIS/PPU

Slide 13

Tidal Datums

Slide 14

Complex Tidal Regimes

Rec orded water level across Pri nce of Wales Channel 15/16 May 2007
1.5
booby
goods
ham mond
nardana
i nce

W
aterlevel relativetoAHD[m
]

0.5

-0.5

-1

-1.5
12:00

Slide 15

18:00

00:00

06:00

12:00

Tidal Residuals
Turning Points

Predictions
Measurements

Residuals

Lags

Slide 16

Predicted UKCM Tidal Plane

Slide 17

Vessels
The Economic
Component

Slide 18

Ship Size

Slide 19

Theory Stability

Slide 20

Ship Motions Unique to each Vessel

Slide 21

Calculating Ship Motions

Slide 22

Vessel Spectra

Slide 23

Wave Theory
The Enviroment
Component

Slide 24

Waves

Slide 25

Slide 26

Idealised wave spectrum

The AWAC
Acoustic Wave and Current
bottom-mounted
measurement device

Wave Measurement
AWAC is designed to measure wind/swell
waves
0.5-30 second period

Slide 27

WaMoS radar images

Wave theory Wave period and height

Wave period relates to wave length.

Commonly used wave periods:
Tp: Peak period
Tz: Zero-crossing period
Tm: Mean period (=average)

Slide 29

Significant Wave Height Hs

Stands for significant wave height.

Corresponds well to visual estimate of
wave heights.
Average of largest one third of waves over
a certain period of time.
Also known as H 1/3

Wave Spectra
A statistical representation of a stationary sea
state
1 2.0

peak

1 0.0

Wave energ y [m2/ Hz]

Slide 28

8.0

6.0

4.0

2.0

0.0
0.0 0

0.0 5

20 s

TP

0.1 0

10 s

0.1 5

0.2 0

0.2 5

0.3 0

6.7 s

5 s

4 s

3.3 s

F requency [Hz]

FFT rapidly converts a time series

signal to a representation in the
frequency domain, a spectra
Units are m2/hz v hz, convert
spectral density to m by integrating
hence related to area under the
curve
Parameters\ specifically
Spectral density can be interpreted
as the total variation or variance of
sea-surface elevations over
frequencies
Also equals 4 x SD: standard
deviation of sea surface elevations
Hmo is typically 5-10% larger than
Hs by Longuet-Higgins 1980
Sea swell split often picked at
around 8s when deriving wave
paramters from spectra, strictly
speaking..