1 Preliminary ship design

To be able to estimate the costs of the concepts and their variants, a

preliminary design of the variants will be constructed. Based on the
assumption that a larger ship increases the economies of scales of a
vessel, the preliminary designs will be based on the maximum size box
that was explained in Chapter 8. This chapter is split in two parts, the first
part focuses on the dimensions of the variants, the second part on the
main propulsion power that is required to give the variant a certain speed.

1.1 Variant dimensions

The inputs for the dimensions are the length, breadth and draught of the
vessel. These three dimensions shape a box and at that point a fourth
parameter is introduced: the block-coefficient, the fraction of the box that
is left after shaping it into a faired hull. Multiplying the four parameters
gives the total volume that is displaced by the vessel. Most of the theory
used in this paragraph can be found in the following books: Geometrie &
Stabiliteit (Pinkster 2003), Resistance & Propulsion 1 (Kuiper 2003) and
Constructie en Sterkte 1 (Boon 1997)

1.1.1 Length
Since longer is relatively better for the resistance of a ship than breadth or
draught, it is preferred to maximize this parameter. The length is therefore
determined by the maximum allowed length on the Rhine. This is 135m for
a single hull ship and 110 meter for a barge. In case of a barge, there is a
possibility to couple the barges behind or next to each other. Downstream
it is obligatory to couple the barges next to each other, upstream the
barges need to be coupled behind each other.

1.1.2 Breadth
The average breadth of a passenger vehicle and the number of lanes in
the vessel are the two factors that influence the breadth of the variants.
Besides the space that is required by the cargo, the construction of the
ship and a walkway for personnel takes approximately 1,5 meters. The
following table shows the different breadths with the corresponding
number of rows.

Table 1.1: Breadths and number of lanes in the variant

In the case of the coupled barges, the barge has a maximum breadth of
17,10m since the maximum allowed breadth on the Rhine of a coupled
barge is 34,35m. Another possibility with the coupled barges is a barge
that has a breadth of 11,40m. This enables to sail with three barges next
to each other on the river; stability will however become a problem. This
calculations is done hereunder. A rough estimation of the stability can be
done with the following formula and assumptions:

GM =KB+ BM KG

GM is a measure for the static stability

and should be larger than 0,5m.

KB=

T
2

LB
I
12
BM = T =
LBTC b

KB is the height of the centre of buoyancy

of the vessel, taken as half of the draught
of the vessel.
BM is the height of the Metacentre, the
point where the vessel rotates around.

VCG
VCG
( Cargomcargo )
( S h ipms h ip )+
m s h ip+cargo

KG=

KG is the height of the centre of

gravity of the vessel. VCGship is the height

of the centre of gravity of the ship itself,
VCGcargo of the vehicles inside.
This can be calculated for all the breadths of table 1 and no problems
occur. For the breadth of 11,4m it is however a problem, the GM reaches a
value of only 0,4m, which is too small.

1.1.3 Design draught

The depth of the Rhine is a very important factor for the design of the
ship. The water level of the river is fluctuating during the year and
imposes two factors on the sailing capabilities, the maximum draught of
the ship and the available height under the bridges.
In a research of the MARIN (Thill 1998) it is found that high water only
occurs a few days a year, and should therefore not be a major problem.
The case of low water happens more often and should be taken into
account. The same research of the MARIN shows a number of days that
are available when a certain draught is chosen.

Table 1.2: water depth and available sailing days

Another aspect is that the depth between the bottom of the ship and the
riverbed has a large influence on the speed and resistance of the ship.
Allowing a depth of only 25cm increases resistance decreases speed and
increases the risk of grounding.
Besides the depth of the river, the heights of the decks inside the vessel
influence the choice for a certain design draught. The following table
shows the effects of the different possibilities.

Table 1.3: The influence of the draught and deck height on the number of decks

This table shows that there is not a large difference in the number of decks
when a different draught is chosen. Combined with the available sailing
days, the design draught is chosen to be 2,75m and will not be varied over
the variants.

1.1.4 Block Coefficient

The specific weight of a car is rather low, it weighs approximately 1231kg,
see annex 10.1, and takes around 16m inside the vessel, the resulting
specific weight is less than 100kg/m. Comparing this to a 20 feet
container that weighs up to 30 tons and takes 30m, the specific weight of
a car is very low. This leads to the conclusion that the vessel needs to
have a lot of space, but at a very low total displacement. This is totally
different than a conventional push barge or inland ship, which are
normally very full and heavy to be able to carry as much freight as
possible. The block coefficient of these vessels is between 0,85 and 0,9;
which is extremely full compared to seagoing vessels.
For short sea shipping it is quite different, there are numerous examples of
RoRo vessels that transport passenger vehicles. Most of them are
relatively fast and light ships, so they have a very low block coefficient,
between 0,62 and 0,68.
Another thing that influences the block coefficient is the weight of the ship
itself. This weight can be determined with the method of Watson, and the
results point that for all combinations of dimensions, a block coefficient of
0,74 is sufficient.

1.1.5 Different push boats

Three of the concepts use push boats to propel the vessel instead of a selfpropelled vessel. This gives one major advantage: both on the sea and
river, the propulsion system can be optimized easily.
For this preliminary design it is chosen to use standard push boats. There
are many shipyards that can design and build push boats for both the sea
and river. One important remark is that the breadth of the seagoing push
boat changes with the breadth of the variant, since it has to fit in the slot
at the stern of the barge. The river push boat does not have that
requirement, so standard sized boats can be used. Another remark is that
the draught of the sea push boat is larger, since that enhances the
possibility to equip it with larger propellers.
The push boats have all equipment to propel and command the complete
convoy on board; this is done because the barge should be as simple as
possible.

1.1.6 Capacity
To calculate the number of cars that fit in the variant, a couple of
parameters are important. The lane length and the percentage of the lane
that can be used effectively determine the total parking space on the
decks. The lane lengths are calculated by multiplying the effective deck
length, the number of lanes on each deck and the number of decks. The
effective length is a measure of the part of the vessel that is actually used
to park vehicles and is determined to be 96 meters in both a single hull
vessel and the barge combinations.
The percentage of lane meters that can be used effectively is different for
the single hull ship than for the barge combinations. Since the single hull

ship has to have all facilities and equipment for operating the ship on
board, more space is lost. The barge combinations have almost all the
equipment fitted on the push boat, and are therefore able to have a more
effective cargo hold. The single hull percentage is 80%; the barge
percentage is chosen to be 90%.

1.1.7 Variant overview

For each concept, a number of variants can now be distinguished. The
table on the next page shows the key characteristics of each variant. The
variants are coded with a character for the concept and a number for each
variant. The concepts are coded A to D:
Concept A: Single barge, dedicated push boats
Concept B: Single barge at sea, multiple barges at river, dedicated push
boats
Concept C: Single hull
Concept D: Single barge, single push boat
The numbers of the variants are based on the different breadths. A, C and
D have breadths varying from 13,5 to 21,5m; B is the concept with
coupled barges and has variants with breadths of 13,5; 15,5 and 17,1m.

Table 1.4: Characteristics of the variants

1.2 Propulsion (power prediction)

As a basis for the estimation of the costs of the variants in Chapter 12, the
required propulsion power is calculated. This is done with the method of Holtrop
& Mennen, combined with the shallow water effects method that was described
by Karpov.

1.2.1 The Holtrop & Mennen method

The method is described in the paper An approximate power prediction
method(Holtrop J. 1982) and a spreadsheet model of the method that was made
by the TU Delft is used to make the calculations. The method is based on
statistics from a very large range of model and full-scale tests in several maritime
research institutions. It is a commonly excepted method for power prediction.
The resistance of a ship is build up from six different components in the method.
The following formula is used:

Rtotal=R F ( 1+ K 1 ) + R APP + RW + R B + RTR + R A

With:
RF
1+k1
RAPP
RW
RB
RTR
RA

the frictional resistance, calculated with the ITTC-1957 friction formula

A form factor that corrects the frictional resistance for the hull form
the resistance of the appendages like the rudder
the resistance caused by the wave system that the ship creates
the resistance caused by the bulb at lower speeds
the resistance of the submerged part of the stern
a correlation between the statistics of the model tests and full scale tests.

Of these components the friction and wave resistance are the most important
ones.
The input for the method is:
L
B
T

Dp

The
The
The
The
The

length of the ship

breadth of the ship
draught of the ship
volume that the ship displaces
diameter of the propeller, including the number of propellers

The breadth, draught and volume of the variants follow from the previous
overview. The length is somewhat different, since the length of the push boat has
to be added. According to a research of MARIN, the effects of the connection are
not a problem. The length of the push boat that is added is taken as 20m. This is
an average of push boats found on the internet.
The diameter and number of propellers is of major importance as well. A large
propeller has a better efficiency than a smaller one, but the draught of the push
boat and a certain distance it has to be under the water level bound the
diameter. This leads to a diameter of 2m for the river push boat and 2,5m for the
sea push boat.

1.2.2 Method of Karpov for shallow water effects

The effects of the shallow water of the river cannot be neglected and will
therefore be calculated with the following method. On the same basis of the
Holtrop & Mennen method, there is a method to calculate the effects, it is
developed by Karpov (Van Terwisga 1989). The shallow water resistance is
calculated with the following formula:

Vs

Vs 2
( C f +C a )( ) +C r

Rs h allow =0,5S

With:

S
Cf + C a
Cr
VS
* and **

the density of water

is the wetted surface of the ship
the friction related resistance coefficients
the pressure related resistance coefficients
the speed of the ship
correction factors for the shallow water

To determine * and **, the graphs of Appendix 14.2 are needed. The graphs
show the functions of Fnh, Froude number based on river depth, and the ratio
of the water depth and the draught of the barge (h/T).

1.2.3 Example of power prediction

The two previous sections elaborated on the resistance of the variants. To get the
actual engine power that is needed, the resistance has to be multiplied with the
speed and the propulsion efficiency. The propulsion efficiency is calculated by
Holtrop & Mennen and has values of between 45 and 50% on the sea, and
between 35 and 45% on the river.
To give an idea of the total outcome of the method, the following tables show the
results for variant D1. The results of all the other variants can be found in
Appendix 10.3.
Speed
(knots)
10
12
14
16
18
20

Resistance
(kN)
137
173
214
261
312
378

Engine Power
(kW)
1556
2273
3188
4356
5775
7726

Propulsion
efficiency
0,4513
0,4699
0,4836
0,4932
0,5009
0,5036

Table 1.5: Power prediction of variant D1 on the Sea

Speed
(knots)
5
6
7

Resistance
(kN)
66
90
114

Engine Power
(kW)
486
766
1.106

Propulsion
efficiency
0,3514
0,3611
0,3714

8
9
10

142
164
177

1.545
1.930
2.200

0,3786
0,3929
0,4133

Table 1.6: Power prediction of variant D1 on the river

1.2.4 Power prediction conclusions

Since there is a legal limit on the installed power in a ship that sails on the Rhine
of 4500kW, there are variants that are not able to reach the complete speed
range. A normal ship operates at a maximum continuous rate of 85% of the
installed power and takes a sea margin of 10% into account as well. This sea
margin originates from the power prediction, since that is done for flat water
conditions. So the maximum required power that is below the legal limit is 75% of
4500kW: 3375kw. The following list shows the variants with the maximum speed
with less than 4500kW of installed power. The third column shows where that
maximum speed is located, on the river or on the sea.
Variant
Maximum
speed
(knots) At sea/river
B1
B2
B3
C1
C2
C3
C4
C5
D1
D2
D3
D4
D5

8
8
7
12
12
12
12
12
14
12
12
12
12

River
River
River
Sea
Sea
Sea
Sea
Sea
Sea
Sea
Sea
Sea
Sea

Table 1.7: Reduced maximum speeds of variants to meet power restrictions

Boon, B. (1997). Constructie en Sterkte 1, Deel B, TU Delft.

Holtrop J., M. G. G. J. (1982). An approximate power prediction method.
International Shipbuilding Progress. 29.
Kuiper, G. (2003). Resistance and Propulsion, TU Delft.
Pinkster, J., Bom, C.J. (2003). Geometrie en Stabiliteit, TU Delft.
Thill, C. (1998). Intervaart, Technical Concepts of Sea- River Transport.
Wageningen, Maritime Research Institute Netherlands: 104.
Van Terwisga, T. (1989). Weerstand en voortstuwing van bakken, een
literatuurstudie.