Abstract
For a jetty exposed to waves it is important to understand the behaviour of the moored ships and the operational downtime in early stages of the development to determine if the proposed terminal meets the downtime requirements. In case of steep depth contours, a breakwater is not a cost-effective solution to reduce the operational downtime. Other solutions to reduce the downtime to acceptable levels are required.
This paper shows, for a location with strong currents parallel to the coast but also with a predominant swell at a 45° angle with the coast, how numerical modelling of the moored ship response can be used in an early stage to optimize the orientation of the jetty with the aim to minimize the (annual average) downtime. The downtime has been determined based on the behaviour of moored tankers for five different jetty orientations.
The orientation which leads to the least amount of downtime, is an orientation more in line with the swell wave direction. For this location, the effect of current on the downtime is less dominant for the relevant sizes of tankers than the effect of swell waves.
This paper shows how numerical modelling of the moored ship response can provide the required insight in the operational downtime in an early stage of the development of a jetty exposed to waves, which in turn can be used minimize the operational costs.
