Real-Time Computation of Economic Load for Hopper Dredges

The Corps of Engineers Silent Inspector (SI) dredge monitoring system measures dredge performance and position in real-time. The SI has on-board analysis capability that computes the pumping, sailing, and dumping times along with the hopper load in Tons Dry Solids (TDS). TDS has been incorporated into the economic load solution as the load metric rather than in-situ sediment volume. An economic load analysis module for the SI has been developed and tested against previously recorded SI data from dredges operating in the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi river entrance. Preliminary results of the data analysis indicate that for cuts close to the disposal area, total load cycle times could be reduced by 30% with less than 10% reduction in load per cycle. Details of the LP solution are presented along with an analysis of the effects of errors in TDS measurements. Tests of the system on operational dredges in Southwest Pass are planned for this year.