Proceedings of The Fifteenth (2005) International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference

Seoul, Korea, June 19−24, 2005

Copyright © 2005 by The International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers
ISBN 1-880653-64-8 (Set); ISSN 1098-6189 (Set)

Fishtailing Instabilities in Emergency Towing of Disabled Tankers

Kamlesh S. Varyani, Nigel D.P. Barltrop and Xuan P. Pham
Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering,
Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland

ABSTRACT R Non-dimensionalised aft towing point on tug

'
ri Non-dimensionalised angular velocity
SAFETOW (Strategic Aid For Escort and Salvage Tugs at Work) is a
Ti Tension of the towline between the vessels
European project developed to provide masters of disabled vessels and
masters of salvage and escort tugs with support tools which will enable TS' Non-dimensionalised thrust when going straight
them to make decisions in real-time with the best available information. U,Ui Velocity
This paper focuses on predicting the dynamics of a tug towing a XE,YE,NE Component of environmental forces
disabled tanker. Of interest are the course stability, trajectories and time XH,YH,NH Component of hydrodynamic forces on Hull
histories of trajectory parameters such as heading and drift angles. The XP,YP,NP Component of Propeller forces
calculation takes into account wind effects (using new generic XR,YR,NR Component of Rudder forces
equations), tow point, and towline length. Different fishtailing XW,YW,NW Component of Wind forces
instabilities are also investigated, i.e. when tug and disabled tanker are Xi,Yi,Ni Sum of the x-axis components of the hydrodynamic and
both moving, and in bad weather conditions when tug is positionally external forces/moments
fixed and the disabled tanker is weathervaning. For trajectory αi Relative wind direction of i-th vessel
calculations, the velocity of the tug and the disabled tanker can be βi Drift angle of i-th vessel
either constant or allowed to vary with respect to time. The authors also δi Rudder angle of i-th vessel
detail the new generic equations for estimating second order mean εi Angle made by towline with centreline of towed
wave drift and current generic equations for current forces/moment. disabled vessel
γi Flow straightening coefficient of i-th vessel
KEY WORDS: Towing dynamics, course stability, trajectory, wind
ρ’,ρ Density of air/sea water
force, current force, second order mean wave drift force.
θi Heading angle of i-th vessel
NOMENCLATURE θii Angle which the towed vessel axis made with the x-axis
of co-ordinate system fixed in space
ARi Rudder area of i-th vessel
Afi,ASi Lateral/Transverse projected area over the draft water
line INTRODUCTION
Bi Breadth of i-th vessel
Li Length of i-th vessel Between January 1992 and March 1999, a total of 593 merchant ships
Cb Block coefficient were lost. In many of these cases, if safe towing had been available,
Ci Rudder coefficient there is quite a good probability that the accident would have been
CWiN Yaw wind coefficient avoided. For instance, in the AMOCO CADIZ accident, if action had
CWiY Sway wind coefficient been taken early enough to control the drift, this would have prevented
di Draught of i-th vessel the grounding of the ship and the spilling of 227,000 tons of crude oil,
with a cost of about 282 million euros.
I 'Zi Non-dimensionalised added moment of inertia of mass
Kij Autopilot coefficients Safety, reliability and economy are the main considerations in the
Li Ship length of i-th vessel design of salvage towing. In calm sea conditions, the tow rope force is
Mi Mass of i-th vessel a combination of the resistance of the vessel and forces associated with
M 'Xi , M 'Yi Non-dimensionalised added mass of i-th vessel in x & y any motion oscillations. Forces typically become larger in the presence
direction of wind, waves and current. In this paper, the authors concentrate on
towing the tanker from its bow.
N 'ri , Yri' Non-dimensionalised manoeuvring derivatives
N β' i , Yβ' i Non-dimensionalised manoeuvring derivatives In recent past, Kijima and Wada (1983), Kijima and Varyani (1985),
Varyani (1999), Kijima et al. (2000) and Kishimoto and Kijima (2002)
P Non-dimensionalised forward towing point on tanker have showed the mathematical modelling for towing a disabled ship.
Q Non-dimensionalised towline length

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