how wind effects the course of a ship

by Emory Lindgren IV 7 min read

The wind forces on a ship generally influence the ship by increasing the resistance while the ship is under way. The longitudinal force generally constitutes the largest part of the total wind induced resistance. The transverse force causes yaw, drift and deviation from the intended course, which can cause added resistance in two ways.

Full Answer

What is the effect of the wind on a ship’s stability?

Feb 26, 2020 · Wind will cause below 2 effects on vessel:- 1. Vessel will drift downwind due to force of wind as discussed in last chapter. 2. Vessel will turn due to wind which we will cover as below. Case 1. Vessel at even keel stopped in beam wind from Port side In above figure, P is the pivot point of vessel almost at midship since vessel is stopped.

Why will a vessel drift downwind?

In a previous report, the authors investigated the effects of wind on ship manoeuvrability in the range of the wind speed for the ship speed which is not very large. In the investigation, they obtained the formulae by which the angle between the wind direction and a drifting direction of a turning ship, and the drifting distance while a ship turns during 360 degrees can be calculated.

How does the wind affect a vessel under sternway?

Wind will cause below 2 effects on vessel:- Vessel will drift downwind due to force of wind as discussed in last chapter. Vessel will turn due to wind which we will cover as below. Case 1. Vessel at even keel stopped in beam wind from Port side In above figure, P is the pivot point of vessel almost at midship since vessel is stopped.

What happens to a boat when it is in the wind?

Ship winds, both measured and estimated, were higher with a heading (true) wind, than with a following wind, by 10% for measured and 15% for estimated winds. Tanker winds show good agreement with buoy winds up to about 14 ms-1. For stronger winds, heading winds were reported as higher than buoy winds and following winds were reported as lower.

What is vessel trim?

Vessel trim by stern moving with sternway in beam wind from Port side. ​. -Strong turning moment bow away from wind and stern into the wind. Due to larger turning lever vessel will have strong tendency to turn to stbd (i.e. Stern will seek the wind while falling back).

Where is the pivot point on a ship?

Pivot point is located at 1/4th of ship length from bow due to head way. So there is a rather small turning lever thus smaller turning moment but vessel will still have tendency to turn to port.

How to analyze the impacts of wind and current on ship behavior?

To analyze the impacts of wind and current on ship behavior, the wind and current conditions during the sailing of the ships are needed, i.e. the velocity of both wind and current. Thus, the meteorological and hydrological data in the study area are collected. The meteorological condition refers to wind and visibility.

How to quantify wind and current?

7. Firstly, the functions to describe the mechanism of wind and current impacts in Equations (1), (2) need to be determined, which specifies the form of regression models. Secondly, the regression analysis will be performed using the subsets of ship behavior with a similar ship size. The estimated results of all subsets will indicate whether the wind and current impacts vary among different sizes of ships. Finally, the overall functions to describe the wind and current impacts considering the variation pattern over ship size will be specified with coefficients estimated directly using the whole data set of ship behavior. In the following, each step will be elaborated upon.

Why is the Nieuwe Waterweg a straight waterway?

1. The reason for choosing an almost straight waterway for external impacts analysis is to eliminate the impact of a specific waterway layout on ship behavior. In a curved waterway, besides the impact of more complex current conditions due to the curve, the bridge team on board also needs to hold the ship position to follow the direction of the waterway. It leads to a large variation of ship behavior due to the maneuvering habits of individual officers when passing a curve. Thus, the impacts of wind and current are hardly separated from the resulting trajectories in a curved waterway, and a straight waterway is preferable to focus on such impacts. However, the study area is not exactly straight with parallel banks on both sides. The impacts of such slight bending waterway layout may still exist in the analysis results, but are considered to be negligible. The total direction changes of the waterway stretch in the study area is about 2°. The length of the study area is 2300 m, and its width is about 650 m. The changes the bridge team has to make to follow the waterway layout are therefore assumed to be negligible, and all changes visible in the trajectory are attributed to the external conditions. The traffic in the Maasgeul channel (see Fig. 1) splits into Nieuwe Waterweg and Calandkanaal, which are physically separated by a slightly bent mole, named the Splitsingsdam.

What is seaborne transport?

Seaborne transport has been an important means of international freight transport, which accounted for over 80 percent of the global trade by volume and more than 70 percent by value until 2017 and grew by another 4 percent in 2018 ( United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, 2018 ).

What is AIS data?

In this research, AIS data is used to describe the ship behavior under different external conditions. The Automatic Identification System is an automated tracking system onboard ships to automatically transmit information about the ship to other ships and coastal authorities. In 2000, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) issued an amendment adopting a new requirement regarding the introduction of AIS system in the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea ( International Maritime Organization, 1974 ). By the end of 2004, the AIS system was mandatory for all ships of 300 Gross Tonnage (GT) and more engaged on international voyages, cargo ships of 500 GT and more not engaged in international voyages and all passenger ships irrespective of size. Inland ships, both commercial and recreational, and sailing vessels longer than 20 m are mandatory to use AIS since December 1st, 2014 according to the resolution by Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine (2013). The resolution applies to most of the inland vessels in the Netherlands. In the study area, all seagoing ships including the ships below the GT limit of IMO regulation have installed AIS equipment and used it all the time as required by the local port authority. Since the year 2014 is a transition period, the majority of the collected AIS data of 2014 in the study area are seagoing ships. The collected AIS data in the study area contain 415,121 messages (inbound 4300 ship trajectories by 215,926 messages, outbound 4732 ship trajectories by 199,195 messages). However, the exact number of missed inland ship trajectories in AIS data can hardly be estimated. There could be some inland ships without AIS equipment sailing in the area without record in the data, which may affect the analyzed ship behavior. The focus of this analysis remains to be seagoing ships recorded in the collected AIS data. One of the possible reasons that the data set contains less AIS messages for outbound ships, while there are more outbound ships is the different reporting interval of ships at different speed. Part of the outbound ships will take a left turn directing to Calandkanaal, and the speed will be low with longer reporting intervals and thus less AIS messages compared to other ships.

How big is a ship bin?

The whole data set of ship behavior is split into subsets with the same or similar ship beam. The bin size is mostly set as 1 m, while for beams smaller than 10 m or larger than 32 m, the bin size is set as 5 m to include sufficient data (more than 30 ships) in each subset.

What is the NWO project?

This work is initiated by the project, Nautical traffic model based design and assessment of safe and efficient ports and waterways, under the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). The fellowship of Yang Zhou is supported by China Scholarship Council and Delft University of Technology. The support from SmartPort, both financially and by embedding the research in the practical context of the Port of Rotterdam, is highly appreciated. The authors would also like to thank the department of Data Management in the port of Rotterdam during the data collection, and appreciate Frank Cremer for accessing AIS data, Cor Mooiman for providing wind and visibility data, Bob van Hell and Lamber Hulsen for simulating current data.

What happens when a ship goes through water?

When a ship proceeds through water, it pushes the water ahead. This volume of water returns down the sides and under the bottom of the ship. The streamlines of return flow are speeded up under the ship, causing a drop in the pressure and resulting in the ship dropping vertically in the water.

When the wind is pushing the ship’s stern away to leeward, the stern tends to swing

When the wind is pushing the ship’s stern away to leeward, the stern tends to swing towards the leeward. The ship is therefore steered towards the wind and the ship is required to be given a lee helm.

Why does a ship drift sideways?

However, depending on the strength of the wind, the ship drifts sideways due to leeway and this has to be accounted for while handling the ship.

What happens when the wind blows from the right astern?

When the wind is blowing from the right astern, steering the ship becomes easy; however, in case of head wind, the stern part of the ship has the tendency to pay off on either sides. This is a difficult situation to tackle and getting the ship back on course is no piece of cake.

Why are tugs important?

Tugs are extremely helpful for manoeuvring, but are monetary burden on ship owners as each tug taken for assistance is charged a handsome amount. However, they ensure the most important factor - safety of the ship and the port, which compensates the monetary part.

Can a ship hit the berth?

Ship can hit the berth with her bow before stopping, or the large astern movement used to stop the ship and the resulting transverse thrust can cause the stern to hit the berth.

Why is it important to balance the forward speed of a ship against the astern power needed to stop the same?

This result into greater effect of the transverse thrust, which brings the ship’s bow close to the berth and throw the stern off.

What are the most powerful external factors influencing ship maneuvering?

Wind is one of the most powerful external factors influencing ship maneuvering, by its force, velocity and angle of incidence upon the sail area of the ship.The characteristic elements of the wind are direction and velocity.

What happens when you increase the draft of a sailboat?

When increasing the vessel’s draft, the sail area got smaller and the wind effect drops. When increasing the ship’s draft the drift is more pronounced reaching 80° after only 30 minutes, fact that can be explained as a result of the moving of the windage area to the stern of the vessel.

What is the drifting moment?

The drifting moment turns the vessel untill it reaches her drifting heading. A this moment there is an equilibrium between wind force on the windage area and water pressure on the underwater area.

When was the Mircea cel Batran purchased?

„Mircea cel Batran” Naval Academy (MBNA) purchased in 2009 a complex of operational maritime simulators named "Integrated simulator for driving of watercraft" type Navi-Trainer Professional 5000 manufactured by TRANSAS Limited Co and certified by DetNorskeVeritas (DNV) as A class (full mission) for bridge and machinery.

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