“Designation of operational restrictions for harbour ships on inland waterways

Abstract

The existing approaches to assignment of operational restrictions for inland vessels with regard to maritime areas, as well as for inland waterways, are analyzed in the paper. The methodology for assessing the feasibility of organizing the operation of inland and mixed river-sea-going ships in wave-sheltered waters in maritime areas is studied. The additional limitations regulated by the Guidance R.015-2006 of the Russian Classification Society for such vessels while exploiting in regimes of port navigation in sea regions are con-sidered. Research of peculiarities of wave formation on inland waterways has showed that in coastal areas the local winds and topography have significant influence. For limited water areas there are no up-to-date refer-ence data on long-term wave and wind characteristics. Executed analysis has shown that for the decision of a problem on definition of permissible conditions of ships operation on the protected water areas on internal waterways in a port navigation mode, the approach earlier used for the Guidance requires essential changes. A list of parameters to be taken into account when justifying the conditions of inland navigation vessels opera-tion in sheltered waters has been defined. Calculated dependence of an estimation of modes of the established wave in the limited water areas on which realization of a mode of port floating on inland waterways is possi-ble is offered. Ranges of calculation limits for ships of the classes under review are determined. The required level of safe operation of inland waterway vessels in the basins, the rank of which doesn't correspond to the class of the vessel, is substantiated. The study results are recommended for inclusion in the regulatory frame-work of the Russian Classification Society.