General information

MoorMotions is a nonlinear time-domain code for calculating wave-induced motions of moored ships, together with mooring line and fender loads. It is developed by Dr Tim Gourlay at Perth Hydro and used for our ship hydrodynamics consulting.

Inputs

• First-order and second-order ship wave loads from WAMIT
• Ship impulse response functions (time-domain added mass and damping) from WAMIT
• Mooring line geometry
• Mooring line tension/extension curves
• Fender reaction/compression curves
• Fender friction coefficients
• Mooring line and fender energy dissipation factors
• Additional mooring hardware as required

Outputs

• Time-domain ship surge, sway, heave, roll, pitch and yaw (single or multiple vessels)
• Time-domain tension in all mooring lines
• Time-domain compression of all fenders
• Comparison of all outputs with PIANC/OCIMF criteria

Method

MoorMotions uses a time-stepping method to calculate 6-DoF accelerations, velocities and displacements of each ship, using a fourth-order Runge-Kutta solver. It is written in MATLAB.

Continuous improvement

The methods in MoorMotions are continuously improved using model test data, as well as full-scale trials data described here.

Published validation articles are shown here.

History

In 2015, full-scale trials were undertaken to measure wave-induced motions of inbound and outbound bulk carriers at the Port of Geraldton. The GNSS equipment was left recording while the ships were loading. After the motions in the channel were analyzed, a side project began to analyze the ship motions at the berth.

As it turned out, the ship motions at the berth were as interesting as the ship motions in the channel. The code MoorMotions was written to convert measured ship surge, sway and yaw into mooring line and fender loads.

The code was extended to take ship wave loads as input for open berths. For complex harbours, a coupled ship-and-harbour model was developed in WAMIT to provide wave loads. For side-by-side or tandem motions, the MoorMotions code was extended to take 12-DoF coupled outputs from WAMIT.