Prediction of manoeuvring abilities of 10000 DWT pod-driven coastal tanker

This paper aims to present a new approach in the prediction of manoeuvring abilities of pod-driven ships. A new mathematical model of motions based on MMG methodology was developed and a new type of description of forces acting on azimuth drives is presented. Captive model tests of medium-size coastal tanker and pod open water tests were carried out in CTO S.A. (Ship Design and Research Centre S.A.) to obtain hull hydrodynamic derivatives and pod propulsor hydrodynamic coefficients. Fast-time simulations were carried out and results were compared with free running model tests. Validation shows acceptable agreement between numerical and experimental results, i.e. confirms the usability of developed mathematical model to identify the trends in performance also for course unstable ship.