An Experimental Study of Ship Motions During Replenishment at Sea Operations Between a Supply Vessel and a Landing Helicopter Dock

Hydrodynamic interactions during Replenishment at Sea (RAS) operations can lead to large ship motions and make it difficult for vessels to maintain station during the operation. A research program has been established which aims to validate numerical seakeeping tools to enable the development of enhanced operator guidance for RAS. This paper presents analysis of the first phase of scale model experiments and focuses on the influence that both the lateral and longitudinal separations between two vessels have on the interactions during RAS. The experiments are conducted in regular head seas on a Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) and a Supply Vessel (SV) in intermediate water depth. The SV is shorter than the LHD by approximately 17%, but due to its larger block coefficient, it displaces almost 16% more than the LHD. Generally, the motions of the SV were larger than the LHD. It was found that hydrodynamic interactions can lead to large SV roll motions in head seas. Directions for future work are provided.