Numerical Study on the Automatic Ballast Control of a Floating Dock

Abstract The ballast control of a floating dock mainly relies on manual operations, which can be time-consuming and requires skilled workers. This study proposes an automatic ballast control system for floating docks, which improves operational efficiency and safety during the vessel docking process. A numerical model is developed to simulate the dynamic process of the floating dock's operations, which includes a six-degree-of-freedom (6-DOF) model, a hydrostatic force model, a hydrodynamic force model, and a hydraulic model. The hydrostatic force model is developed using the Archimedes law and a strip theory along the longitudinal direction. The hydrodynamic model is made based on the effects of added mass and dynamic damping. The hydraulic model is proposed to deal with the hydraulic calculation of the ballast water system. The present automatic ballast control is designed based on a modified proportional controller (P-controller) to control the valve opening angles when the pitch or roll angles are larger than the corresponding threshold values. Without using controllers, the roll angles of the dock can reach 8.9deg and 13deg during the ballasting and de-ballasting operations, respectively. The present modified P-controller with optimized control parameters can stabilize the dock during the ballasting and de-ballasting operations and keep the maximum pitch and roll angles no larger than 0.016deg and 0.0783deg, respectively. The present automatic control will be further implemented in the vessel docking cases and can significantly improve the stability of the dock.