SAFE MOORING OF LARGE CONTAINER SHIPS AT QUAY WALLS SUBJECT TO PASSING SHIP EFFECTS

Abstract

Container traffic and individual ships’ sizes increased dramatically over the last decades, testing the existing harbour infrastructure to its limits. An important aspect regarding the safety of the berthed vessel is the quality of the mooring configuration. A case study is presented, where an 18000 TEU container vessel is moored at a quay. The motions of the moored vessel and the forces in its lines due to ship passages are simulated, using the potential software ROPES and the UGent in-house package Vlugmoor. Focus is on the mooring plan (operational parameter) and the characteristics of the individual lines (design parameter).