Search

Ships moored in ports are tried to be kept stable throughout their operations. Forces and moments occurring on the ship due to environmental and operational loads are tried to be damped with mooring ropes and fenders. Mooring ropes are among the most active equipment in this process. The forces and moments that will move the moored ships away from the port render the fenders invalid and leave this damping job to the mooring ropes. In this case, determining the load that will occur on the ropes and the distribution of this load becomes of great importance due to the load carrying limits of the ropes. In this study, the research was conducted on the location selection of a new mooring point to be added to a mooring port, due to larger ships becoming more common in the maritime ecosystem. The effect on the mooring ropes of the selected VLCC class very large crude oil ship was examined by changing the stern rope mooring point coordinates. The results of the study demonstrated that a critical rope load, which reached 83.3% of its working capacity in the current mooring plan, could decrease to 73.3% or increase to 94.0% under the same environmental conditions. The output reveals that a new mooring point placement has an important position in the mooring plan load distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic Identification System (AIS) data is used for monitoring the movements of vessels live movements through instant transmission of vessel information while, at the same time, historical AIS data is used for marine traffic analysis by researchers. There are several methods and computer programs developed for the analysis of marine traffic by the use of AIS data. Combining the intersection algorithm proposed by Antonio (1992) and distance calculation method, this study develops a method to analyse vessel distribution on a selected cross sectional line (SCS) in the Northern Aegean Sea. As a complementary to the new methods proposed, a desktop application is developed in C# programming language to visualize the vessel distribution on the SCS line. SQL server is used for AIS data storage and analysis. The study is conducted over 7-day AIS data, specifically 2.382.469 rows and 42.884.442 data in total, belonging to the Northern Aegean Sea marine traffic. As a result, the mapping of the movements of different types of vessels in the Northern Aegean Sea is effectively performed and Frequency-Distance, Draught-Distance, SOG-Distance, SOG-COG distributions on the SCS line are successfully analysed by the new method introduced.

In the face of developments in maritime transportation due to globalization, ports are tending toward new tugboat investments in order to respond to the increasing demand. Due to the high costs of tugboats, organizations may face high investment costs. It is important to determine the most suitable number of tugboats, considering the variables in a port area where towage services will be provided. In this study, a simulation model was developed to determine sufficient tugboat allocation according to some variables in ports. The simulation model was subjected to various experiments, and statistical analyses of the obtained results were performed. The relationships between the variables affecting the level of towage service were revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tanker ships arriving at liquid cargo terminals have to wait for getting service due to various operational restrictions in the terminal. Waiting time is the time passed until the tankers get service after the notice of readiness. The increase in the waiting times of tanker ships causes high demurrage costs. Reducing the waiting times of ships is of vital importance for the operational efficiency of the terminal. In this study, it is aimed to develop a simulation model in which alternative solutions in the cargo transfer operations can be tested to reduce the waiting times of tanker ships. The simulation model has several constraints that can be encountered in liquid cargo terminals, and it can be adapted to any liquid cargo terminal. The developed model was then applied to a liquid cargo terminal in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The editorial from the Journal of ETA Maritime Science introduces the latest issue, highlighting the increase in international publications and the focus on marine engineering topics. Despite receiving numerous article submissions, the editorial team has selected 10 articles for publication in this issue. The editor expresses gratitude to the authors, editorial board, section editors, and reviewers for their contributions. The contact information for the editor is provided for correspondence. The article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. [Extracted from the article]

This paper addresses the discovery of hidden patterns in the data of Automatic Identification Systems by a novel clustering model using data processing and data mining methods. It reveals the transit tracks and the transit vessels on these tracks in the Sea of Marmara which has a dense marine traffic. In this study, improved Density Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise and KMeans++ clustering algorithms have been used together with complex database queries. This proposed approach has been compared to other clustering algorithms such as Self-Organizing Map, Hierarchical Clustering with Single-Link and Genetic Clustering. It has been observed that these alternative algorithms could not reach high accuracy values and they could not give the expected tracks. The proposed approach has five steps and experimental results demonstrate that when this novel approach has been applied step by step, the results can match the observed data by The Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Transport, Maritime and Communications by 95%. Finally, this novel approach is suggested to maritime authorities for all the seas in the world to manage the vessel traffic which has big and complex data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]