Ship Handling Model Validation Using In-Service Measurements Available to Purchase

In this work, an alternative method is proposed for validation of ship handling models using onboard monitoring data of normal ship operations. If validation data can be collected during ship service, one can obtain a large number of “repetitions” without dedicated sea trials that are expensive. Although the accuracy of each sample will probably be less than in dedicated trials, it might be compensated by the fact that many samples will be available. As a case study, the results of simulation of the research vessel of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Gunnerus, using MARINTEK’s vessel simulator (VeSim) are presented and evaluated by certain maneuvers identified from Gunnerus onboard measurements. To validate a ship simulator, it is shown that it might be better to investigate the agreement between simulation and full-scale measurements during operations similar to the ones that shall be simulated later, than just validating against standardized maneuvers such as turning circle and zig-zag tests.