Passing Vessel Hydrodynamic Model Validations in Complex Waterways

Passing deep-draft vessels in confined navigation channels generate significant hydrodynamic forces on berthed vessels and affect mooring systems and shoreside structures. Accurate prediction of these forces is essential for design of waterways and navigation channels, improvement of navigation safety, and optimizing port operations. There are several methods for predicting passing vessel impacts (hydrodynamics, forces) that are well known in the industry. Many of these methods produce reasonable estimates for pressure fields, particularly in open water, and have been used successfully in the past for various port and waterway projects. The present paper is intended to provide improvements to these predictions for complex waterways, increase the reliability of engineering design, and in turn reduce risk for navigation in confined waterways and improve port operations. The Vessel Hydrodynamics Longwave Unsteady (VH-LU) modeling system original development was described in Fenical et al. (2006) and has been under continual development as part of a comprehensive hydrodynamic modeling system, incorporating ambient hydrodynamic processes present in realistic port settings. The modeling system has been previously validated (Fenical et al. 2007) using field water level and velocity measurements, laboratory water level measurements, and laboratory berthed vessel loading measurements for all 12 test results reported by Remery (1974). The present paper describes validations of the modeling system using recent laboratory vessel hydrodynamic data, as well as recent large-scale laboratory berthed vessel loading data with the presence of a quay wall reported by van Wijhe et al. (2008). The results of the comparison between the quay wall tests of van Wijhe et al. (2008) are believed to be the most accurate published to date. Finally, the present paper describes recent real-world application of the modeling system to wharf design projects.