Assessment of ship manoeuvrability by using a coupling between a nonlinear transient manoeuvring model and mathematical programming techniques

In this paper, a numerical method based on a coupling between a mathematical model of nonlinear transient ship manoeuvring motion in the horizontal plane and Mathematical Programming (MP) techniques is proposed. The aim of the proposed procedure is an efficient estimation of optimal ship hydrodynamic parameters in a dynamic model at the early design stage. The proposed procedure has been validated through turning circle and zigzag manoeuvres based on experimental data of sea trials of the 190 000dwt oil tanker. Comparisons between experimental and computed data show a good agreement of overall tendency in manoeuvring trajectories.