Stability Aspects of Bulk Carriers

Abstract

Bulk carriers are one of the three dominating merchant ship types together with grain and container vessels.Today, bulk carriers comprise about one third of the world fleet in tonnage terms. The demand for raw materials likecoal, iron, copper, …etc., has increased considerably since the turn of the millennium. Moreover, the bulk carrier hasspecific nature due to the loaded bulk cargo’s parameters which may slosh, liquefy, shift...etc.The intact stability of bulk carriers is investigated, with respect to the latest regulations developed by IMO. Theeffect of loading conditions and types of cargoes on ship stability and cargo earning capacity are studied. It is found thatin some cases of loading conditions with certain types of cargo we have to use ballast water to satisfy the new grainregulations. This will lead to a reduction in the cargo earning capacity of the ship. The study under consideration is veryimportant from the economic point of view of the vessel’s operation. Ship’s owners and charters must know which typeof bulk cargoes is more profitable in case they have a choice to carry different types of bulk cargoes.A computer program is developed to carry out the stability calculations. Firstly we should get the vessel’s linesplans drawings, then using these drawings to prepare the vessel’s tables of offsets. Using these tables of offsets andModel Maker Program, full model of ship’s sections at different stations and the general arrangement can be obtained.Take this model in the Auto Hydro program to do the different loading conditions calculations. A programingcode is written and to be run to check the compliance with the intact stability criteria

Keywords

• bulk carriers- stability- bulk cargo