This paper evaluates an ASD tug’s main control parameters in terms of: the propeller thrust, a direction thereof (the thruster angle), and the hull drift angle for given escort speed and required push force. Such a relation is sometimes referred to as the tug performance diagram. A simplified model of tug hydrodynamics is used to arrive at the qualitative and most representative relations of the above variables. This model is rather generic that can also suit any type of tug hydrodynamics, including even that related to a conventional tug

One of the causes of ships’ accidents are errors in the communication between navigators in charge of ships concerned. The most common causes include a lack of communication, misunderstanding of a received message, incorrect choice of the type of message or misinterpretation of the information exchanged. These errors can be significantly reduced by the automation of intership communication processes, in particular by a developed automatic maritime communication system. The decision to communicate is as essential as communication itself. This paper presents the problem of identifying situations requiring the establishing of communication by a sea-going vessel. A definition of the need to establish communication between the vessels is associated with the acquisition of data, analysis and evaluation of the navigational situation and the relevant inference process. Based on an analysis of the process of identifying navigation situations which require communication between proceeding ships, the model of automatic identification of such situations has been develope

The standard for interfacing marine electronic devices (NMEA – National Marine Electronics Association), does not provide unambiguous information regarding the reliability of data and its timing. In this paper, time delays in navigational data are investigated. For this purpose AIS and navigational data collected offshore and onshore are used. The investigations are concentrated on lags among various NMEA sentences recorded in a relational database during the survey voyage. The analysis is based on standard elements of descriptive statistics

Short-term prediction is a tool that helps to manoeuvre inland units, allows assessing the effect of the planned manoeuvre and reduces the probability of collision. Model of ships hydrodynamics is required to perform this task. In the paper simple to implement solution based on a Nomoto model is proposed. Method of determi ning the parameters of the model was presented. Researches were carried out with use of INSim Inland Navigation Simulator

The article presents the solution for improvement of oil spill fighting with utilization of synthetic aperture radar. The way of identification is presented as well as the treatment of obtained data in order to eliminated “looks like” objects. Such system will widely improve the oil spill fighting at a very early stage of incident

Through defining Water Traffic Black Spot and analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of identification methods of Road Traffic Black Spot, then choosing Quality Control Method to recognize water area of intensive traffic accidents and applying integrated influential intensity of accident rate based on Systematical Clustering Algorithm into defining the boundary of the area, an effective evaluation method of black spot identification that is established, which lays a foundation for the subsequent evaluation work

In traditional approach to position fixing navigator exploits mathematical apparatus based on probability theory. Series of assumptions are required in order to use the platform to draw final conclusions. Limited ability is available regarding fix accuracy a posteriori evaluation. In the paper Mathematical Theory of Evidence is exploited in order to introduce new foundations enabling modeling and solving problems with uncertainty. Modified scheme of approach towards making the fix delivers new standpoint for perceiving accuracy of the result

The article presents an algorithm developed for determining conditions of safe ship operation in a system of sea waterways consisting of three components, or subsystems: waterways, navigation and traffic control. A model of the optimization of sea waterway system parameters is describe

The paper discusses the influence of the main vessel operational parameters on fuel consumption. These parameters are the speed trough the water, mean draft and trim. The focus is set to the flow phenomena around certain elements of hull geometry as they are sensitive on the selection of discussed parameters. Therefore, the understanding of the flow properties and their impact on ship resistance thus the fuel consumption and emission is crucial taking into account legislative changes imposed by IMO with respect to carbon dioxide emissions from ships

The global policy of protection environment enforces much more stringent regulations to reduce pollutants from exhaust gases. These requirements are being implemented gradually from 2010 and will have full force in 2015 and 2016. The shipping industry is facing a big challenge to meet these regulations, especially on ECA (emission control area). This paper describes the activities within project “MarTech LNG”, that promotes the use of LNG as a ship's fuel on south Baltic Sea region

The paper presents the LNG-related supply chain in the South Baltic Sea Region which was specified as a result of the MarTech LNG Project. First part of the paper presents specification of technologies and technical solutions. Then it turns to the LNG-related stakeholders, i.e. all actors involved into LNG supply, delivery as well as end-user technologies. Aspects of LNG-related infrastructure accomplish the presentation of the SBSR supply chains. The paper is concluded by structural delineation of the supply chains in the SBSR

Nowadays (October 2013) information about ship’s position is obtained generally from specialized electronic positioning systems, in particular, at present functionally satellite navigation systems (SNS) as GPS and GLONASS, and satellite based augmentation systems (SBAS) as EGNOS, WAAS and MSAS. Two next SNS, Galileo and BeiDou, and two next SBAS, GAGAN and SDCM, are under construction. After all the user of these systems, the maritime user also, continually meets and will meet with numerous different limitations of SNS coverage in restricted area, SBAS and DGPS reference stations coverage area, the lack of integrity information about the systems, and of many charts referred to WGS–84 datum, with problem of position fix in restricted area, etc

Natural gas, being the cleanest burning fossil fuel, will play a key role in the future. Liquefying natural gas lets moving it to regions where pipeline transport is not possible, allowing end-use markets access to natural gas. LNG is more energy dense than gaseous natural gas, so there using fields are still increasing in end-use applications, e.g. different types of transportation (heavy duty vehicles, marine or rail applications). Global LNG demand is expected to grow, mostly because of new economic markets from Asia and Middle East

Increasing of the navigation safety level, especially in difficult and heavy traffic areas, is the main reason of VTS creation. The Navi-Harbour 5000 is the one of the newest systems created for VTS system management and it fulfils requirements included in IMO Resolution A.857(20). Main system functions of the vessels traffic movement monitoring are characterized in this article. The effectiveness of the VTS operator work should be increased by proper configuration and use these functions in everyday service

The present article concerns a problem of vessel speed modeling in restricted areas, where vessel traffic flow is disturbed. In analysis of vessel speed on the Świnoujście–Szczecin fairway, division into the particular ship types has been made. Probability distributions describing speed of different ship groups have been analysed. Using the chi-square goodness-of-fit test it has been showed that the best distribution describing vessel speed of the most ship groups, is the Gumbel distribution

This study is aimed at the determination of the significance of faults diagnosed in refrigerating plant components of fishing vessels. The problem is described by the Pareto-Lorenz analysis. The field work covers vessels of the Polish fishing fleet. Ships under examination are typical of the Polish fishing vessels operating at sea. The research has been based on data gathered in 2007–2011, consisting of 235 faults, detected and estimated for refrigerating systems of 25 small vessels of the Polish fishing fleet. Taking the refrigerant as a criterion of division, we have analyzed two types of vessels

This paper proposes an efficient, objective method of optimizing fuel costs during the sea passage. The presented method based on data collection and calculations can be used in daily practice for masters of vessels and by ship’s management divisions. The paper presents not only the use of the method for newly constructed but also for ships already in service. The biggest advantage of this method is that it does not need extra expenses to determine the fuel effectiveness in a changeable marine fuel market

The paper presents analytical and Monte Carlo simulation methods applied to the reliability evaluation of a system operating at two different operation states. A semi-Markov process is applied to construct the system operation model and its main characteristics are determined. Analytical linking of this operation model with the system reliability model is proposed to get a general reliability model of the system operating at two varying operation conditions and to find its reliability characteristics. The application of Monte Carlo simulation based on this general model to the reliability evaluation of this system is proposed as well. The results obtained from those two considered methods are evaluate

This paper presents reconstruction of the oil spill that occurred as result of an m/t “Baltic Carrier” accident. This reconstruction was carried out with use PISCES II simulator. The result of several simulations could be the step to usability and validation of PISCESS II simulator and as a guideline for setting up this kind of simulations

The paper presents the theoretical and experimental methods used in scientific and operational practice to predict the hydrodynamic loads generated by propellers and thrusters on the hydrotechnical constructions. The influence of different parameters: pitch and rotational speed of the propeller, aft body form of the ship hull and shallow water effect on the velocity field are discusse

The following paper provides information about eye-tracking techniques and methodology. It is focused on introducing eye movement metrics in human factor research in maritime domain, explaining basic methodology and describing the types of data analysis, thus providing the background and guidelines for simple eyetracking studies

LNG import terminals are under construction in the Baltic Sea ports Klaipeda and Świnoujście and should start operations in 2014. LNG tankers in Klaipeda port should cross port up to the end of the port. Probability of possible emergency situations with LNG tankers is very low, but in the same time it is necessary to take all possible precaution measures to avoid accidents with LNG tankers in any cases, especially in port areas. “Black out” on the LNG ships is very dangerous in ports areas, because there is very limited channel’s width and other port water areas, and it is necessary to steer vessel in such situations as well. Theoretical calculations of the precaution measures, simulations and practical training of the ship and tugs masters, port pilots and VTS operators should help in such emergency situations. This article is oriented to explain theoretical calculation methods for the LNG tankers steering by tugs in case of “black out” situations, simulations’ results and practical recommendations for the Port Authorities, port pilots, ships’ and tugs’ masters that will be possible to minimize LNG ships’ incidents and accidents probability in port areas

Paper presents results of a real-time simulation experiment which was carried out to study an influence of speed reduction on the navigational safety of container ships. In order to determine changes in the vessels manoeuvrability set of simulated sea trials was carried out. The tests included the measuring of the movement parameters of ships proceeding with different initial speed in different external conditions

Evacuation of people located inside the enclosed area of LNG terminal is a complex problem, especially considering that accidents involving LNG are potentially very hazardous. In order to create an evacuation model managed through fuzzy logic, extensive influence must be generated from safety analyses. A very important moment in the optimal functioning of an evacuation model is the creation of a database which incorporates all input indicators. The output result is the creation of a safety evacuation route which is active at the moment of the accident

The article discusses causes of steering gear overload at high sea states when a ship is kept on course in aut opilot mode. The presented research results refer to simulations of a ship-autopilot system on a preset course in the presence of varying intensity disturbances (various sea states), with updated alterations of rudder angular velocity (the velocity changes are executed discretely) determined by the function block for conventional sea state determination

The infra-red radiation was discovered in 1800 by English astronomer Sir Wiliam Hirchel but practical appl ications could be dated to the beginning of XX century. First advanced scientific investigations, as well as works relating to the military applications of IR technique were carried out during the First World War. Many applications of IR radiation exist until now. It is generally accepted that taking into account the destination the devices of IR techniques can be divided on three main groups: measuring devices, observation and aut omatic recognition systems. Devices of this type can be found both in Navy and civil marine

The paper presents an analysis of the selected robust adjustment methods applied in geodesy, proving thereby justifiability in choosing the applied attenuation function. With a use of the radar navigation methods, the said methods were applied in the process of determination of the observed vessel’s positions

The paper presents joint operation of AIS-AtoN and radar. There was brought forward a fact of divergence of the information visualized in radar in cases when AIS receivers are produced by different manufacturers. It happens that the AtoN AIS information is not displayed by radar screen. It is also essential that not every ship is provided with AIS equipment

This paper studies the performance of pattern matching algorithms with the goal of the detection and tracking of vessel targets in maritime radar images. We compare different methods using a database which consists of radar images from two different manufactures. The data covers a timespan of roughly 4 hours with a one second time resolution. The performance of 3 template matching and 5 feature detector algorithms is tested and the most suitable algorithm is chosen for further optimizations. These optimizations are based on the properties of the radar images and the properties of the radar target

Cruise ships arriving in the port of Koper carry approximately 1000 to 3000 passengers and crew members. Such a concentration of people presents a high degree of risk in the event of a major disaster, because it is difficult to control, due to limited space, the dynamics of people in the event of a general panic, the presence of large amounts of fuel, proximity of the city center and other vessels and cargo at the port. To avoid the possibility of hazard events, a good safety assessment must be done prior to a ship’s arrival. One of the methodologies for systematically assessing the risk is a Formal Safety Assessment, a tool for determing and evaluating the risk of potential hazards at a cruise ship terminal. This paper discusses the diverse aspects of safety analysis

Paper presents basic information on the Constant False Alarm Rate (CFAR) algorithms and assessment of their practical efficiency in maritime FM-CW radar. Experimental research comprised qualitative assessment of the different CFAR algorithms done by the comparison of radar video signals presented by installed in the Gdynia Maritime University FM-CW radar type CRM-203 utilised these algorithms and pulse radars with digital (Raytheon Pathfinder MK2 and NSC 34) and analogue (Racal Decca AC 1690) display units

The problem of synthesis a dynamic positioning system for low frequency model of surface vessel was considered in this paper. The recursive vectorial backstepping control design was used to keep a fixed position and heading in presence of wave disturbances. The passive observer was introduced to smooth the measurements and to estimate the velocities needed for the control algorithm. The computer simulation results were given to demonstrate the effectiveness of that combination of controller-observer system to compensate environmental disturbances

The formal verification of performance properties of a ship’s course control algorithm used in the InSim simulator of Maritime University of Szczecin is presented in the paper. Implementation of fuzzification, fuzzy rules and defuzzification techniques allowed the construction of a controller tuned in accordance to expert knowledge as an alternative to the industry PID standard. Both controllers’ structures are analysed. Their verification leads to the assessment and comparison of dynamic properties of a modelled ship’s course control. Further development of course controllers into track controllers has been discussed as well

Accurate prediction of the ship squat is of significance to ensure safety passage of ships in restricted waters. In this paper, a first-order Rankine source panel method is adopted to predict the squat of a ship sailing in restricted canal. Taking KVLCC2 tanker as example, numerical calculations are carried out for the ship travelling in a canal with different conditions. The results of squat are compared with measurement data and the results from empirical formulas. The influence of canal geometry on ship squat is investigate