Towing Resistance and Towline Tension of a Barge in Regular Waves : Model Experiment Using Towing Carriage

Concerning the towing problems with tug-towed ships system, some factors such as the towline length, the towing speed, waves, the location of towing point should be considered. However, these important factors have been left to the knowledge and the experience of towing operators up to the present time. In order to ensure the safety of tow ships, it is desirable to develop the optimum method of towing system from the viewpoint of tow operators. In this paper, we carried out water tank experiments using a barge model ship in calm water and regular waves respectively. The characteristics of towing resistance coefficient were examined according to four elements, namely the towline length, the towing speed, the waves length/ship length ratio (λ/L), and the ship draft. In the experiment, it was observed the appearance of impulsive towline tension due to surging motion and encounter waves.