Harbor-Wide Passing Cruise Ship Surge Study, Port Canaveral, FL

Passing cruise ships in confined navigation channels and harbors generate significant hydrodynamic forces on berthed vessels and affect mooring systems and shoreside structures. Accurate prediction of these forces is essential for improvement of navigation safety and optimizing port operations. The Vessel Hydrodynamics Longwave Unsteady (VH-LU) modeling system, whose original development was described in Fenical et al. (2006), has been under continual development as part of a comprehensive hydrodynamic modeling system incorporating ambient hydrodynamic processes present in complex and realistic port settings. The modeling system has been previously validated using field hydrodynamics and laboratory hydrodynamics and forces on berthed vessels, including the presence of a quay wall reported by van Wijhe et al. (2008) as reported in Fenical et al. (2011). The present paper focuses on a recent large-scale application of the modeling system to Port Canaveral, FL, in support of the Canaveral Harbor, FL Integrated Section 203 Report (widening and deepening project) sponsored by the Canaveral Port Authority (CPA). The port experiences complex surge effects generated by a "parade" of several large cruise ships leaving the harbor in succession, in particular, on windy days when higher speeds are necessarily employed to control vessel position within the channel. The Naval Ordnance Test Unit (NOTU) requested the study, with the concurrence of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS), to demonstrate that the recommended project and the present and foreseeable future ship traffic would not adversely impact current or future NOTU and CCAFS waterfront operations within the Trident and Middle Basins. In addition, CPA also requested analysis of potential changes in mooring conditions at commercial berths. The simulations included the "parade" of three cruise ships leaving the harbor in succession under complex speed, drift and track combinations and subsequent surge wave sloshing on a complete, harbor-wide basis. Results included hydrodynamics and forces on 10 berthed non-commercial ships (submarines, combatants, mission service vessels) and 10 different commercial ships (cruise ships, tankers, RoRos, containerships, bulk carriers). Results for existing port conditions were analyzed and determined to qualitatively represent the surge effects observed and reported by pilots and terminal staff. Results of the analyses indicate that the proposed harbor deepening and widening are likely to lessen the surge effects. The results collectively targeted the most cost-effective locations for any future harbor modifications to reduce these effects. In addition, the results were used to demonstrate that increasing the "parade" departure timing interval effectively reduces the impacts to berthed vessels.