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Historical evaluation of the navigability of the Western Scheldt for ultra large container ships
Verwilligen, J.; Eloot, K.; Meire, D.; Delefortrie, G. (2024). Historical evaluation of the navigability of the Western Scheldt for ultra large container ships, in: Schonees, J.S. (Ed.) Proceedings of the 35TH PIANC WORLD CONGRESS 2024, Cape Town, South Africa, 29 April – 03 May 2024. pp. 770-776
In: Schonees, J.S. (Ed.) (2024). Proceedings of the 35TH PIANC WORLD CONGRESS 2024, Cape Town, South Africa, 29 April – 03 May 2024. PIANC: Brussels. ISBN 978-2-87223-041-9. 1636 pp., more
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Document type: Conference paper
Keywords
    Channel design
    Harbours and waterways > Manoeuvring behaviour > Bank effects
    Harbours and waterways > Manoeuvring behaviour > Currents
    Harbours and waterways > Manoeuvring behaviour > Influence under keel clearance
    Harbours and waterways > Safety  > Risk analysis
    Simulations
    Vehicles > Surface craft > Ships > Merchant ships > Container ships
Author keywords
    Navigability; Port accesibility; Shallow water manoeuvring
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Abstract
    The Western Scheldt is the approach channel for seagoing vessels to the port area of Antwerp (part  of the Port of Antwerp-Bruges, Belgium). The most important marginal ships to the port of Antwerp concern  Ultra Large Container Ships (ULCS). For these ships the Western Scheldt is a shallow and confined  environment with sharp bends and important tidal conditions. The accessibility of the Western Scheldt requires  continuous dredging efforts to maintain a minimum nautical depth.
    The paper introduces a methodology for evaluating the navigability of the Western Scheldt for ULCS at different  bathymetric and tidal conditions and presents some use cases applying this methodology to different historical  (2011, 2015, 2019) conditions of the fairway.
    The methodology is based on track controlled manoeuvring simulations and was applied for both in- and  outbound navigation. Simulations have been executed every 10 minutes of a full tidal cycle (13h) in order to  evaluate a variety of under keel clearances and current conditions.  From the output of the simulations the ease of navigation could be assessed based on two evaluation  parameters: the rudder angle (1) and the cross track error (2). Based on these parameters the most critical  conditions (locations and tidal conditions) were identified and the evolution in time of the navigability of the  Western Scheldt was assessed. 
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