Numerical analysis of the maneuverability of a large ship in restricted waters

In March 2021, an ultra-large container ship, the M.V Ever Given, was stranded at the southern part of the Suez Canal and blocked the two ways of the canal and subsequently deferred more than 100 vessels traversing between Asia and Europe. The blockage was cleared within five days; however, notwithstanding the short period, the incident had caused huge world trade losses. One of the prevailing causes of ship groundings is manoeuvring difficulties due to ship-bank interaction. This study is therefore aimed at understanding the effect of the ship's size on the ship-bank interaction in a canal. In this paper, a mathematical model was developed to study the effects of ship-bank interaction on the manoeuvring performance of a large container vessel in a canal, with different ship parameters. The results showed that the increase in size and speed significantly influenced the bank-effect and contributed to the eventual grounding of the ship. The effect of rudder surface area to counter the bank-effect was also investigated. This study showed that increasing the rudder surface area can improve the counter-actions of the ship against the bank effect.