Mooring system design

Mooring Layout

Effective design and analysis of mooring layouts is an essential element of a successful port. We have extensive expertise in this area, including evaluating the limiting conditions for ship-to-ship and ship-to-structure operations.

Each berth has particular requirements depending on its location. These range from dealing with long-wave resonance throughlarge tidal range, to optimising the use of the available mooring equipment and specification of criteria passing ship criteria. Before beginning the analysis Aktis Hydraulics first maps out the terminal’s requirements and boundary conditions. A numerical analysis of the ship’s behaviour identifies any limiting conditions, pinpointing and assessing the weakest link.

Terminal design

We use a combination of expertise, design guidelines and simulation for conceptual design and evaluation as follows:

Preliminary design of fender systems
Design loads for bollards/QRHs and quay/jetty structures
Workability for loading and unloading operations, depending on the ship type and size and the mooring layout
Effect of passing ships on moored ships; guidelines and regulations for sailing speeds and minimum passing distances;
Innovative mooring systems: benefits and implementation optimisation (such as ShoreTension)
Single Point Moorings, Spread Moorings, Side-by-Side and tandem moored ships.

Detailed numerical analysis

At Aktis Hydraulics we have a variety of Mooring Software Analysis packages at our disposal each with their own strengths and capabilities. For full details on our models, please see our Dynamic Mooring Analysis capability » READ MORE »

Innovative mooring systems

Terminals may be able to significantly increase operability by targeted use of innovative mooring systems such as ShoreTension® and Cavotec Moormaster™. The ShoreTension® system is flexible stand-alone mooring system providing constant high tension when the environmental loads on the ship reach a critical level, allowing the ship to move out. The ship is then gently hauled back in when the peak-load has passed, all without the need of a constant external energy source. Moormaster™ creates a vacuum between its pad and the ship hull and with an advanced force-feedback control mechanism actively keeps the vessel at the berth eliminating the need for conventional mooring lines.

Our analysis and field observations both show that that the two systems both reduce the motions of the vessel at berth, increase operational limits, increase workability and help to avoid dangerous situations when lines fail e.g. under storm conditions or due passing ships. The systems also reduce the motions under normal conditions allowing for more efficient cargo handling operations.

Ship-to-Ship

Ship-to-ship operations at terminals have various points of attention, including influence fields, various combinations of loading conditions and interacting mooring systems.

Passing Ship

Passing ships are one of the critical aspects affecting moored ship particularly for ships moored along fairways and rivers or in other protected locations. Berths close to main navigational channels may be exposed to large hydrodynamic suction forces. Aktis Hydraulics has supported Port Authorities to develop guidelines on speed and distance for ships sailing close to occupied berths. » READ MORE »