Case Study of Ship Squat in Sulina Channel using NTPRO 5000 Navigational Simulator

摘要

This paper presents a case study of ships passing through shallow and narrow waters in Sulina Channel. The method used in this research was simulation using NTPRO 5000 navigational simulator and it was studied the variation of ship squat, draft and under keel clearance for several military ships similar to Romanian Navy vessels, sailing with different speeds. The purpose of this research was to find out which ship types could navigate through Sulina Channel and what is the maximum speed they could pass without grounding due to ship squat. The integration of the trials results showed what the safe speed for each vessel was and it was concluded that the maximum speeds were 8, 12, and 16 knots. Also, a difference between desired and real speed was observed, caused by the restrictive navigation condition. Numerous researches are being done in ship squat domain and Sulina Channel is one of the canals where this phenomenon is studied, but squat simulation on military ships has never been done before in this canal.