HECSALV8/POSSE5

Barge Tutorial

2.4

AP F05 F20 F38 F56 F74 F90 FP

9.0
3.0 1.5 7.5 10.8 10.8 10.8 9.6 6.0

4.5

9.0
5.4
1.5
4.5

Herbert-ABS Software Solutions LLC

http://www.herbert-abs.com/
Copyright (c) 2014 by HERBERT-ABS SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS LLC. All rights reserved worldwide.
CargoMax, CruiseMax, HECSALV and PlanMax are trademarks of Herbert-ABS Software Solutions LLC.
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Barge Tutorial • 2
Contents

Introduction 5
Overview ....................................................................................................................................................................... 5
The Sample Barge ......................................................................................................................................................... 5
The Sample Exercises .................................................................................................................................................... 5

Defining the Model 6

Overview ....................................................................................................................................................................... 6
The Ship Project Editor (SPE) ....................................................................................................................................... 6
Entering Project Information ......................................................................................................................................... 7
Particulars ...................................................................................................................................................................... 7
References ..................................................................................................................................................................... 8
Frame Table ................................................................................................................................................................. 11
Draft Marks ................................................................................................................................................................. 12
Strength Locations ....................................................................................................................................................... 13
Geometry ..................................................................................................................................................................... 14
Defining the Hull ......................................................................................................................................................... 14
Defining the Skegs....................................................................................................................................................... 23
Defining Wind Profile Area......................................................................................................................................... 28
Defining Compartments .............................................................................................................................................. 29
Defining Bulkheads/Decks .......................................................................................................................................... 32
Generating Compartment Offsets ................................................................................................................................ 36
Entering Loads............................................................................................................................................................. 39
Tank Capacities ........................................................................................................................................................... 41
Generating Hull Data ................................................................................................................................................... 45
Evaluation Criteria ....................................................................................................................................................... 49
Model Review ............................................................................................................................................................. 50

Sample Analyses 51
Overview ..................................................................................................................................................................... 51
Prerequisites ................................................................................................................................................................ 51
Objectives .................................................................................................................................................................... 51
Description of the Incident .......................................................................................................................................... 52
Defining the Incident Initial Condition (Before Stranding) ......................................................................................... 52
Current Condition (After Stranding)............................................................................................................................ 54
Detailed Damage Analysis .......................................................................................................................................... 55
Developing the Plan..................................................................................................................................................... 60
High Tide ..................................................................................................................................................................... 60
Low Tide ..................................................................................................................................................................... 63
Summary...................................................................................................................................................................... 68

Defining Structural Sections 70

Structural Project Properties ........................................................................................................................................ 71
Configuring Structural Elements ................................................................................................................................. 75
Summary...................................................................................................................................................................... 86

Glossary of Terms 87

Appendix: Sample Barge Definition 90

Particulars .................................................................................................................................................................... 90
Strength Stations .......................................................................................................................................................... 90

Barge Tutorial • 3
Hull Definition............................................................................................................................................................. 91
Skeg Properties ............................................................................................................................................................ 92
Skeg Offsets................................................................................................................................................................. 92
General Arrangement .................................................................................................................................................. 93
Lightship ...................................................................................................................................................................... 94
Lightship Weight Ordinates ......................................................................................................................................... 94
Lightship Weight Blocks ............................................................................................................................................. 94
Structural Section ........................................................................................................................................................ 95

Barge Tutorial • 4
Introduction
Overview
This tutorial is aimed at providing a general overview of the key pieces of the HECSALV/POSSE software
suite. Using step-by-step procedures, the tutorial will first take you through the basic processes of
defining a ship model from technical drawings, and then you will be shown how to perform some typical
salvage and emergency response analyses using the resulting ship model.
The tutorial is broken up into two distinct parts, Defining the Model and Sample Analyses with the
intention that if your task only involves salvage response and not ship modeling, you can skip the first part
and use the completed Sample Barge model that is included with the installation to perform the sample
analyses.
For each major task in the tutorial, a general overview of the user interface is provided as well as detailed
instructions related directly to the samples. For a more comprehensive treatment of the user interface
and functionality of the software, please refer to the HECSALV/POSSE User Manuals.

The Sample Barge

The sample vessel used throughout this tutorial is a single hull tank barge with rake forward and aft. It’s
principle particulars are as follows.

Length Overall 60.00 m

Length Between Perpendiculars 60.00 m
Breadth, Molded 18.00 m
Depth, Molded 6.00 m
Design Draft 4.50 m
Design Speed 6.00 knots

The technical specification for the barge is designed for simplicity, reducing the amount of repetitive data
entry that would be involved in a more complex vessel, while still incorporating as many of the essential
data elements as possible. This will enable a variety of analyses to be performed on a ship model that
can be quickly developed.
A full specification of the sample barge is provided in the supplementary appendix: Sample Barge
Definition. Relevant excerpts of the specification will be included throughout the tutorial.

The Sample Exercises

Each sample exercise begins with a Description of the Incident section that is intended to simulate an
actual incident report that you might receive in an emergency response situation. The “incidents” are
designed to give an overview of several common types of casualty response scenarios including
stranding, collision, and oil outflow. Intermediate results are provided so that you can check your work as
you follow through the analysis.

Barge Tutorial Introduction • 5

Defining the Model
Overview
In this first part of the tutorial, two major software components of the software suite will be used. First, the
Ship Project Editor (SPE) will be used to create a ship project for the sample barge, XBarge. Following
the creation of the ship project, structural details will be defined using the Section Modulus Editor.
Before getting started, it is recommended that you print out a copy of the appendix “Sample Barge
Definition” to use as an easy reference throughout this part of the tutorial.

The Ship Project Editor (SPE)

The SPE is one of the key components of the HECSALV/POSSE software suite, allowing you to create
the fundamental ship models used in the various design and analysis applications.
The main user interface of the SPE is designed to allow you to easily manage the variety of data
elements, or objects, that make up a ship model. Examples of data objects are hydrostatic tables,
compartment geometries, frame tables, etc. For a complete description of SPE’s user interface, please
refer to the user manual.
For the purposes of this tutorial, the following figure shows the main elements of the user interface and
will be referred to extensively.

User Interface Elements

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 6

Entering Project Information
Define a new project and enter the basic particulars
• Select the Ship Project Editor within your Herbert-ABS software suite by clicking Windows Start |
All Programs | HECSALV8 | Ship Project Editor 8.1.
• In the Open Ship Project dialog select the New tab. If this dialog box is not already open, click
File | New from the menu. Enter the name and basic particulars for the barge as shown in the
figure below. Note that the principle particulars are specified in meters.
• Click OK.

Defining a New Ship Project

Congratulations, you have just initiated a new ship project! As mentioned, the SPE is set up to allow for
the entry of data in just about any order. However, the main nodes of the Project Tree view in the SPE
are arranged in a typical order in which you might enter the data, and so can be used as a guideline for
how to proceed. After entering principle particulars you would most likely move on to enter data related to
general ship properties (frame table, longitudinal reference points, number of propellers, etc.). After this
basic information is entered, it is logical to proceed on to define the geometry of the hull, the internal
compartmentation, and so o18n. The figure above shows how the Project Explorer mirrors this natural
data entry progression. Each of the main nodes of the project tree has been expanded to show further
details of how the data elements are organized. Having entered the most basic information related to the
XBarge (i.e. name and principle dimensions), you can now proceed to enter additional general
information.

Particulars
Enter additional general particulars
• Select the Particulars node of the tree view.
• In the main work area, the input fields will be displayed as shown in the figure below. Enter
additional information for the following fields:

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 7

 Particulars Edit Window

References
It is helpful at this stage to examine the general frames of reference used in the technical description of
the barge (Appendix). By paging through the technical description the following observations can be
made:
• Frames are numbered from “0” at the AP to “100” at the FP, with a 0.6m frame spacing
throughout,
• Longitudinal distances are measured in m from the AP with positive values indicating meters
forward (x direction),
• Vertical distances are measured from the baseline (molded topside of keel plate),
Transverse distances are measured from the centerline with positive values indicating meters to
starboard. Typical reference planes are automatically provided as default values as follows:

Longitudinal References Transverse References Vertical References

AP – Aft Perpendicular CL – Center Line BL – Base Line

MS – Midship Keel – Bottom of Keel
FP – Forward Perpendicular
The References node on the tree provides quick access to the available references.

For the purposes of this exercise, only the default reference systems are required. However, it is worth
noting that it is possible to define special reference points if required. For example, if you are given a
shipyard drawing that shows the vertical center of gravity of deck tanks in terms of meters above the
deck, then it might make the data entry easier if you defined a third vertical reference point called “Deck”
along with the BL and Keel.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 8

 Establish the aft to forward order of data entry from the AP
• Click on the Longitudinal node under the References node on the tree and review the available
settings. Review the Axis Settings here (also summarized in the status bar in the lower right of
the application)

• Select the Change Axis Settings button to open the display options editor. This can also be
opened from the main menu by selecting Tools | Display Options and clicking on the Axis
Settings tab. The Axis Setting tab is used to set the x, y and z axis default settings. Make sure
the Reference Plane set as shown below. Locations representing AP (aft perpendicular), BL
(Baseline), and CL (centerline) should already be defined and available.
• The Standard Ship Settings button can also be used to reset these settings. A high level of
control is provided to control the display of location information for ships and offshore shapes.

Display Options Axis Settings

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 9

 Use the toolbar buttons to quickly open the reference option settings, or to
quickly change the reference system from AP, MS, or FP.

Save your work

• Select either the File | Save option from the menu or click on the icon in the tool bar to open
the Save As dialog window.
• Select or create a folder to place your file. This folder will be the location to store all files related
to the barge tutorial.
• Type in “xbarge” in the File Name field and click the Save button.
• You will then see a Project Notes window appear. This is provided as a means of documenting
changes to the ship project. You can increment version numbers and for each version, you can
enter a numbered list of Version Notes to indicate what changes or additions have been made.
• Click OK.

Project Notes Window

It is up to you how much (or how little) version information you would like to keep track of. A good
guideline is to have one version number for each major release of the ship project (starting with the initial
definition). Version notes are not so important during the initial definition, but starting with a first major
modification to the ship project (i.e. “version 2”), a short version note should be added for each major
element of data that is modified, added, or deleted.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 10

Frame Table
For this sample (as with most actual ship modeling) it is worth entering a frame table since much of the
longitudinal data is provided by frame numbers rather than longitudinal distances. By establishing a frame
table, HECSALV/POSSE allows you to enter either longitudinal distance or frame number when
describing a longitudinal location. Examples of this will be given in later steps of the tutorial.

Define the frame table

• Select References node in the tree view. A separate node is provided to enter reference planes
and frames in each direction. Select the Longitudinal node to edit the frame table.
• Click the Edit Frames button to define the frames. Frames can be entered manually or
generated. For this sample we will generate frame information so click on the Generate button in
the lower left corner to generate a new frame table.
• In the Generate Frames from Minimal Definition area below, make sure that Aft to Fwd is selected
and type in the information for the first frame and the last frame as shown below:

Generate Frame Table Window

• Click on the Generate button to generate the entire table from the entered information. Then
Select OK to save the table. Review the frame table to make sure it matches the data provided.
Items highlighted in yellow in the tables are locked and cannot be modified. If you cannot see the
yellow on your computer control the color by opening the Tools | Options menu and reviewing the
settings on the Tables tab.

It is best to use simple numerical names for the frames if possible. Frame labels can be shown in
2d and 3d graphic displays, and keeping the names very short improves readability.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 11

 Longitudinal Reference Frame Table

Draft Marks
Now that the frames of reference have been defined, they can be used to start describing the actual
physical aspects of the barge beyond just the principle particulars. The first node under Ship Properties is
labeled Propellers. Of course, you will not need to enter any data here for the barge, but this is the place
where you would enter the location and diameter of a propeller, and how to display the results of the
immersion calculation (i.e. whether to display the immersed propeller as 50% or 100% immersion).

Create draft mark locations

• Select Ship | Add New Draft Set at Marks from the menu. This option creates a default set of
draft “Marks” at the FP, MS and AP. The draft marks are typically located at different locations so
the default locations must be modified.
• Select the Draft Sets node under Ship Properties on the project tree. Then select the Long. Cell
in the Fwd draft row and type “f85” followed by Enter. By typing the letter “f” followed by a frame
number, you have made use of the frame table you entered earlier to automatically enter the
longitudinal location.
• Frames can also be entered by enclosing the frame name in square brackets, and using this
format you can also include additional operations such as [85]=frame 85 and [85]+0.01= 1cm
forward of frame 85.
• After hitting Enter, you will see that the actual distance in meters is displayed. For this simple
barge, this does not provide a big advantage, but in a more complicated ship with many frames
and varied spacing, it is much easier to be able to enter frame numbers instead of actual
distances.
• Continue entering the MS (Frame 49) and Aft (Frame 1) draft locations, as seen below.

Multiple sets of draft marks can be defined, such as adding drafts at instrumented locations, but only one is required
for this tutorial.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 12

 Draft Location Edit Window

Strength Locations
The Sample Barge Definition does contain information pertaining to the strength locations. Entering these
longitudinal locations has a dual purpose. First, it defines the locations along the length of the hull where
the strength results (shear forces and bending moments) are to be calculated and displayed. Secondly,
this table allows you to enter section properties which will further enable the calculations of deck and keel
stresses and deflection. For the purpose of this sample barge, you are simply going to enter the strength
locations to enable the shear force and bending moment calculations.
According to the Sample Barge Definition the strength locations are as follows:

FRAME No. LOCATION (m-AP)

20 12.00 F
38 22.80 F
56 33.60 F
74 44.40 F
90 54.00 F

Enter the strength locations

• Select the Strength Stations node on the project tree, under Ship Properties.
• In the table that appears in the main work area, type the name of the first strength station using
its frame number “20” and hit enter. The longitudinal location will appear automatically. Continue
entering the rest of the five strength locations in exactly the same way.

Strength Location Edit Window

In addition to the above table, SPE also provides a graphic view of the data entered. If you were to have
entered values for Shear Area, Section Modulus, etc., you would be able to view the entered data
graphically. This additional information regarding section modulus properties will not be used for this
sample barge. In general, the SPE provides this graphing capability wherever it can act as a visual aid to
checking the entered data.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 13

Geometry
The next task in developing the ship model is to define the three dimensional geometry of the hull and
compartment spaces. This represents the fundamental data from which much of the other ship
characteristics can be calculated and derived.

Defining the Hull

The following drawing extracted from the Sample Barge Definition provides all you will need to define the
basic hull shape using offsets. From the profile view at the top of the figure, the offset station locations
can be defined, and from the body plan view, you will be able to develop each station’s offsets.

1.5m
3m
6m
2.55

0.3m
12m 6m
42m

60m

6m 6m 6m 6m 6m 6m 6m 6m 3m 3m 3m 3m

18m

1.2m

0.6m 10.2m

6, 9 6, 0 6, 9
5.7, 9

4.5, 7.8
4.5, 0
3.6, 9
3.174, 8.826 3.15, 9
3, 8.4 3, 0
2.25, 8.1
2.1, 9
2.25, 0
1.674, 8.826
1.5, 8.4 1.5, 0
0.6, 9 0.6, 9
0.174, 8.826 0.174, 8.826
0, 8.4 0, 0 0, 8.4

(HEIGHT, HALF BREADTH GIVEN IN METERS)

Sample Barge Hull Definition

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 14

 Enter general hull settings (plate thickness and height margin)
• Select the Hull node (under Geometry) on the project tree.
• In the main work area, the screen related to hull definition appears. In addition to the graphic view
of the hull, there are tabs across the bottom. Make sure that the General tab on the left is
selected.
• In the field labeled Plate Thickness, enter “12.5” mm (refer to Sample Barge Definition Structural
Section drawing).
• Since the only hull appendages are the two skegs pictured above, and since you will be defining
these explicitly in a later step, you do not need to enter any Appendage Allowance.
• For Height Margin, enter a value of “150.0” mm. Since you are dealing with a flat bottomed barge
with no deadrise, you need to enter a Height Margin. This will ensure that the calculation for
waterplane area is carried out properly. Refer to the user’s manual for details.
• These are all the general settings that you need to enter on this screen. The rest of the
information is calculated from the actual definition of the offsets.

Define the location of the hull stations/sections

• Select Hull under Geometry in the project tree. Click on the Spaces tab on the bottom of the
screen. Click on Add New, on the right hand side under the Tools tab. Select Enter Offsets and
Attach. You will be prompted to enter the name of the new volume/space that will be added.
Accept the default name “Hull” by pressing OK.

Hull Editor

• A new window is displayed to enter the offsets to define the hull shape and compute hull volume
properties. The top of the window is an area for graphically displaying the sections as they are
defined. The bottom contains tables to define the station locations and offsets as shown below.
The right table is provided to define the offsets for the active section (table appears as soon as a
station location is defined).
• Start by entering the station locations (as indicated in the hull definition drawing) in the first
column of the left hand table. Remember to enter the stations from aft to forward. Start with the
station labeled “0” at the AP and work forward.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 15

 Station Location Entry, Aft to Forward

Change the integration rule

• As you enter the station location, some of the other columns related to the station properties are
either calculated or assumed. For example, all sections are assumed to be symmetrical until
otherwise specified.
• The column labeled IRule (Integration Rule) reflects the spacing of the station locations that you
entered and the integration rule chosen in the Integration menu. The default integration method
is Simpson’s Rule. When integrating the hull volume using Simpson’s Rule, the program will
apply the optimum integration method according to the spacing of the stations. In this case, the
stations that were provided in the Sample Barge Definition were well spaced according to
Simpson’s Rule for integration. For a more complicated ship model where you are given a lines
plan, care should be taken when selecting the station locations to ensure an accurate integration
of the hull volume.
• The geometry of our barge is prismatic in nature, so let’s switch the integration method to
trapezoidal. In the Integration menu select Trapezoidal.

Enter the offsets for Station 1

• Click on the first station (0.0 m-AP) to make it the active station.
• Refer to the body plan view in the XBarge Specification. Type the offsets for Station 1 at the AP.
As you enter the offsets the station is displayed graphically in the top half of the window.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 16

 Offsets for Station 1

For a symmetrical station, offsets are to be entered in a counter-clockwise direction looking forward,
starting and ending on the centerline.
The program will mathematically fit a curve between the offset points you define, in order to describe the
shape of the station at any point between the entered offsets and the shape of the surface between
stations. Special properties can be set on the offset points to more accurately define the shapes. In
particular, a point can be defined as an “ArcMidPt”, a “Chine”, or a “Deck Edge”:
• ArcMidPt – a point designated as the midpoint of an arc will result in an arc being drawn through
that point and the two adjacent points.
• Chine – a chine is used to identify a hard corner, or “knuckle,” in the shape of the section, and to
connect geometry features from station to station (for example, the deck edge or the flat of
bottom). Chines are used to improve the interpolation of new stations between the defined
stations which is necessary during compartment generation and for analysis cross section
graphics.
• Deck Edge – The deck edge is a special chine that assists the SPE in automatically connecting a
separately defined deck (with deck camber, for example) to a hull. Refer to the user manual for
details.
Note that chines and arcs are very important not just to defining the sectional shape of a given station, but
also for interpolating sectional shapes in between the defined stations. Refer to the user manual for a full
discussion on chines.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 17

In the case of this first station of the XBarge, there are three points at the turn of the bilge that define a
radius or arc. Instead of requiring a large number of points to accurately define a curved surface, it is
better to define the point at (3.174m-BL, 8.826m-CL) as a point of a circular arc between the two adjacent
points. The SPE does the rest.

Define an Arc for Station 1

• In the offset table for the first station, click in the Chine Type column to select a type for the third
offset point (3.174,8.826). You will be provided with a drop-down menu from which to select the
type of chine. Select ArcMidPt.
• Note that once this point has been designated as an ArcMidPt the graphic view changes.
Selecting the point in the offset table, and zooming in on the arc point shows the picture above.

Defining an Arc for Station1

Continue defining Chines for Station 1

• The two points surrounding the arc point are not necessarily chines in the sense that they
represent a “knuckle” in the shape of the section. However, they can still be used to define and
connect transitions in the sectional shape. In this case, the shape goes from a flat panel (i.e. the
bottom and side shell) directly into a circular arc for the turn of the bilge. More importantly, these
Chines can be used to enhance the continuity longitudinally between stations, especially near the
bow of the barge where the bilge transitions from an Arc to a flat sided plate (as you will see
later).
• To define the point that represents the junction between the flat bottom plate and the radius bilge
(3.0, 8.4) as a chine simply type “1” in the Chine | No. column in the offset table. You will notice
that the Chine | Type is automatically set to “Chine”.
• Similarly, enter “2” for the point representing the junction between the bilge radius and the side
shell (3.6, 9.0).
• The fifth offset point (6.0, 9.0) is also a Chine, but it is special in that it represents the edge of the
deck. Instead of entering a Chine name, click on the Chine | Type and select DeckEdge.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 18

 Defining Chines for Station 1

The index of the chines you define are important. Since chines stretch over a longitudinal
distance of the hull, using the same chine number in adjacent stations will provide the longitudinal
continuity and improve the interpolation of interior geometry.

Save your work

• Note that when you first clicked to get to the View/Edit Offsets options, a new window was
displayed over and above the main work area. This window is called a modal window, and is
special in that you need to save the work you were doing within it before returning to the main
SPE user interface. You will also notice that it has its own menu bar. In this case, select File |
Apply Changes and Save Project File.

Enter the offsets for Station 2

• Click on the second station (at 6.0 m-AP) in the lower left hand table to make it the active station.
• Referring again to the body plan view in the XBarge Specification type in the offsets for the
station labeled “1”.
• Also designate the arcs and chines using the same names (“1”, “2”, and “Deck Edge”) as
appropriate to link the points longitudinally with those in station “0”.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 19

 Offsets for Station 2

Enter the offsets for Station 3

• Click on station 3 (12m-AP) in the lower left hand table and make it the active station.
• In this situation, you can take advantage of the offsets you have already created for the previous
two stations. Use the right mouse-button to click anywhere in the offset table on the lower right
hand side, and select Copy Previous Station from the drop down menu that appears as shown
below (an even quicker way to do this is to press the F4 key).
• The result of this action is that the offsets from the previous station are copied directly into the
table, including the definition of the chine points, arc and deck edge. Now simply modify only
those points that are different from Station 2.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 20

 Modifying Points Different from Station 2

The tabs on the right hand side of the graphic view of the stations allow you to view the information you
have entered in a number of different ways, as follows:
• Active – displays the active station in body plan view. As you step through the offsets, the
active offset is highlighted on the screen. Other selected stations are also shown in less
detail.
• Loc – shows, in profile view, the station locations that you have entered (this is helpful in
reviewing your station spacing if you are using Simpson’s rule for integration).
• All – shows all of the stations in an isometric view that can be rotated and viewed at any
angle. It also shows the continuity in the chines that you have defined, by connecting
each identically named chine with a red line.
• Body – shows all of the stations in body plan view. Note the aft stations are displayed on
the left hand side, whereas the forward stations are displayed on the right hand side in
the body view.

The figure below shows the All view of what you have entered so far, If yours is different, then you may
need to review the data you entered for the offsets.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 21

 All view

Note that Chine points are connected longitudinally between stations with a red line to provide a visual
check that you have defined them properly.

• You are now in a position to complete the hull definition. Following station 3 the next seven
stations are identical. Use the same technique of copying the previous station to create the
offsets for the remaining stations.
• Note that for stations 9, 9 ½ and 10 (No. 11/12/13 in the table) the bilge radius no longer exists.
Make sure that you have entered the first chine point at the correct distance from the centerline.
For Stations “9”, “9 ½”, and “10”, the first chine should be 8.4m, 8.1m, and 7.8m from the
centerline, respectively.

Save your work

• Select the main menu option File | Apply Changes and Close. This saves the offsets to the ship
project but does not save the data to file.
• Once returned to the main SPE user interface, click the save icon on the tool bar and click OK
when the Project Notes window is displayed. This saves the data to file.

Check Your Work

• When you are finished, you should have a hull that looks like the figure shown below.
• Note the calculated values that now appear in the General and Displacement sections of the
screen. On the right hand side are properties calculated at the design draft of 4.6m. Your values
should be close to the values displayed below. If they are not then please review offset details,
integration rule, definition and naming of chines and arcs, plate thickness, and height margin
settings.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 22

 Hull Properties

Defining the Skegs

In order to completely define the hull shape, two skegs need to be added or appended to the hull. The
Skeg Definition and the exact geometry of the starboard side Skeg is shown in the Appendix. Note that
the port side Skeg is not specifically shown, but is assumed to be symmetrical to the starboard side.
The SPE provides a volume section that can be used to define three-dimensional volumes in a similar
way that we defined the hull offsets. Volumes can be either added or subtracted from the hull or a
particular compartment using the Spaces tab on the Hull or Compartment editor. As always, refer to the
user manual for more details.
There are a variety of ways to create a new volume in the main menu, the hull and compartment editors,
and the tree of objects. The approach below is only one of these ways.

Create a volume object to model the starboard skeg as SKEG S

• Click on the Volumes node of the tree view.
• In the main work area you will see a table to be used for defining volumes.
• In the last (2nd) row of this table, type “SKEG S” in the Name field and press the Enter key.
• Upon clicking Enter another window opens up. Click on Offset Defined Volume.
• You will notice that under the Volumes node on the project tree a new object “SKEG S” has been
added to the collection of volumes. Click on SKEG S and the volume editor will be shown.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 23

 Define the station locations and offsets for SKEG S10.
• In the main working area select Edit to open the Offset Editor for the skeg. The offset editor is
exactly the same tool we used to enter the hull offsets.
• Referring to the Plan view (in the hull definition in the Appendix), enter the station locations that
you will use for defining the skeg. Note that the skeg is a very simple prismatic shape requiring
only two stations (the forward and aft ends) to completely define it.
• From the plan view, you can see that the aft end of the skeg is at 0.6 m-AP and the forward end
of the skeg is at 0.6 +10.2 = 10.8 m-AP.

Skeg Station Entry in Offset Editor

Note that due to the prismatic shape of this Skeg, trapezoidal integration will be used.

Enter the offsets for SKEG S

• Click on the first station (at 0.6m-AP) in the lower left hand table to make it the active station.
• In the same row, click on the column labeled Sym (for symmetrical station) and change the value
to “No”.
• Making sure that the first station is still the active station, enter the offsets in a counter-clockwise
direction, starting with the point (0.3, 8.4) as shown below. The first and last offset point are
already connected by default and do not need chine numbers.

Entering Skeg offsets

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 24

 • The first and last point are always considered connected, going from station to station, so no
chine is required on offset 1 and offset 5. Other offsets represent hard angles, so give each a
chine number as above.
• You have just defined the full aft end of the Skeg. You will define the small sliver of a station at
the forward end of the Skeg in the next step.
Note that all stations, whether symmetrical or unsymmetrical, must close to represent an enclosed area.
For this reason, there is a fifth offset defined (0.3, 8.4) that is identical to the first offset, effectively closing
the loop. In the case of a symmetrical station, this closing is achieved by starting and ending on the
centerline. Note also that while chines within an object (such as a compartment or hull) must be uniquely
named, you can re-use chine names in different objects. For example, using chine number “1” in this
definition of SKEG S will not conflict with the identically named chine “1” that was used in the definition of
the hull.

Complete the offsets for SKEG S

• In exactly the same manner as step above, define the offsets for the forward station at 10.8 m-
AP. At the forward end the skeg tapers to nearly zero area.

Completing offsets for Skeg S

• To refine the model lets add some interior stations. Interior stations are not necessary for
analyses with small trim/heel, but for extreme damage situations where the waterplane may pass
completely between the two modeled stations additional detail can be important. To quickly
refine turn on the Refine option in the Integration menu. The resulting model should look similar to
the one shown below.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 25

 Refined Skeg Offsets

Save your work

• On the main menu of the offset editor select File | Apply Changes and Close.
• Once returned to the main SPE user interface, click the save icon on the tool bar and click OK
when the Project Notes window is displayed.

Create the port side Skeg, SKEG P

• The port skeg could be created the same way as the starboard skeg, but instead let’s take
advantage of the fact that the two skegs are symmetrical. With the right mouse-button, click on
the SKEG S node (under Volumes in tree node), and select Tools | Duplicate and Mirror.
• Note that a new volume is automatically created and named SKEG P. This object was created
simply by copying the offsets from SKEG S, and mirroring them across the centerline to the port
side.

Creating Skeg P

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 26

 Attach the skegs to the hull
• Now that you have defined the skegs, all that remains is to attach, or append, them to the hull.
• Click on the Geometry | Hull object in the project tree view to open the Hull Editor. At the bottom
of the main work area, click on the tab labelled Spaces.
• At the far right hand side under the Tools tab, click on the button labeled Attach.
• A small window is displayed showing all of the volumes that have been defined so far. The “Hull”
volume is already attached. Select the two skegs by clicking in the box next to their names, and
click the OK button.

Attaching the Skegs to the Hull

• Upon completing the step above, you will see the Hull displayed along with the two appended
skegs. The skegs are shown in a regular black outline. Note that any subtracted compartments
will be shown in red.

Hull with Skegs, Skegs Selected in Space Editor

Save your work

• Click the save icon on the tool bar and click OK when the Project Notes window is displayed.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 27

Defining Wind Profile Area
Now that the Hull and skeg appendages have been defined, it is time to define the wind profile area.
Typically, you need to include the superstructure and other above deck obstructions such as large pieces
of equipment in the wind profile area calculation. However, for the purposes of this simple barge, we will
only be using the basic hull form.

Create a new wind profile area

• Under the Geometry node in the project tree, click on the Hull node.
• Select the tab, Wind Profile, from the bottom of the work area.
• By selecting the option Copy View Profile, a wind profile area named “hull” will appear in the table
and a highlighted outline of the barge profile is shown in the display window. This profile can be
easily verified by selecting the view “Profile Looking Port” from the toolbar.

Creating the Wind Profile for Barge

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 28

Defining Compartments
Now that the Hull has been defined, it is time to define the internal compartmentation. You will see below
why having the hull already defined greatly facilitates the definition of the internal compartments.
The figure below is an excerpt from the Sample Barge Definition and shows the general arrangement of
the XBarge.

(ALL DIMENSIONS IN METERS)

2.4

AP F05 F20 F38 F56 F74 F90 FP

9.0
3.0 1.5 7.5 10.8 10.8 10.8 9.6 6.0

4.5

9.0
5.4
1.5
4.5

Compartments

Compartments can be constructed the same way we built the hull and skegs. However the SPE provides
a variety of ways to automatically generate offset geometry based on parent volumes, boundaries and
other methods that greatly simplifies the creation of compartments.
Typically volumes used for compartments are generated simply by specifying boundaries. The following
are examples of boundaries:
• A vertical, horizontal, or transverse Plane defined by its location relative to the appropriate
reference point. For example, if the top of a tank is defined by a perfectly horizontal deck, 3.0 m
above the baseline, then the top boundary would completely be defined by the value 3.0 m (from
BL).
• A user defined Bulkhead. This is an object, also defined by offsets, that represents a surface with
some shape to it. Bulkheads can be used when the boundary of a tank isn’t a perfectly flat plane.

Create a new Cargo Oil tank “CO 1P”

• Under the Geometry node in the project tree, click on the Compartments by Group node.
• In the main work area, an empty, one-line table appears that allows you to define new
compartment groups. Select the Name field and type “Cargo Oil”. Next select the Color field and
change it to the color you would like to use for fluid in this group. Note that a ‘+’ sign now appears
next to the Compartments by Group node. This indicates that a new compartment group has
been created.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 29

 • Expand the Compartments by Group node and select the Cargo Oil node. Again an empty one-
line table appears. This new table allows you to create new cargo oil tanks and specify their
general properties. In the Name field, type “CO 1P” and hit Enter. A new compartment will be
created and added to the tree.
• The default values for density (1.00 MT/m3) and Permeability (1.00) are automatically provided.
You can leave the density as it is for Cargo Oil tanks, but for Permeability enter a more typical
value of “0.98”. This indicates that only 98% of the molded volume can be filled with fluid
because of internal structure.
• By expanding the Cargo Oil node, you will see the CO 1P compartment object.

Creating Cargo Oil Tank “CO 1P”

In general, compartments (and the volumes used to attach to them) can be defined by specifying six
boundaries (fore/aft, top/bottom, and port/starboard). Any previously defined offset model (such as our
hull) can be used as a boundary to define a new volume. Selecting the Hull (for example) as a Base
means that you start out with the exact geometry of the hull, and then you specify internal boundaries that
cut away the parts of the hull that you don’t need.
To take the example further, if you were to use the XBarge hull as a base, and then specify an aft
boundary of 30 m-AP (essentially an aft boundary at the midship), the resulting new compartment would
look like just the forward half of the hull. If you were to then specify a starboard boundary of 0.0 m from
centerline, the SPE would take that forward half of the hull, and further cut away everything to starboard
of the centerline, resulting in a compartment that looks like the forward and port quarter of the hull. Any
internal boundary not specified tells the SPE to use the base as the boundary.
This concept will be further illustrated in the next step.

Define CO 1P using boundaries

• Open the compartment editor by clicking on CO 1P node in the project tree. You can also double
click on the icon if no editor is visible. Confirm that the CO 1P object is the active object by
checking the object name that is displayed at the top of the main work area (it should say
“XBarge/Geometry/Compartments by Group/Cargo Oil/CO 1P”), and also by checking the project
tree to see that the CO 1P node is highlighted.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 30

 • In the main work area, you will see a window that is similar to the one used to define the hull. In
the General tab you will see that the values for density and permeability are as specified in the
previous step.
• Select the Spaces tab towards the bottom of the screen next to the General tab. Under Tools
select Add New, at which point a window will appear. Click on Generate Offsets and Attach, Click
on OK to accept the default space/volume name.
• A Generate Offsets window will appear on the screen. Double click the Boundaries item under
Tools.

• In the Define Boundaries window that appears, you will see in the first line, Base Volume, that the
Hull is specified as the base compartment. If the base is not defined then enter “Hull” for the
base.

Defining CO 1P boundaries

• Referring to the general arrangement drawing in the appendix, CO 1P extends from Frame 74 to
Frame 90. Since these longitudinal boundaries represent perfect transverse planes (i.e. there is
no shape to the boundary) you can simply enter the longitudinal location of these boundaries.
Using the frame location shorthand, type “f74” in the field, Long Bounds | Aft. Similarly, type “f90”
in Long Bounds | Fwd.
• Since CO 1P extends vertically from the bottom of the Hull (keel) to the top of the Hull (topside
deck) you don’t need to specifically define these bounds. The SPE will know to use the Hull
(base) as the lower and upper boundaries.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 31

 • Similarly, CO 1P is bounded on the port side by the Hull and so does not need to be specifically
stated. However, CO 1P only extends as far as the centerline, so you need to specifically define
this starboard boundary. Since this starboard boundary is also a perfect plane down the
centerline of the barge, you need only specify its transverse location, which of course is 0.0m
from the centerline.
• There are various ways to control location and number of stations generated. For this tutorial
Stations | Option field will be set to the default (and recommended) method Match. With Match
the generated volume will have stations at the same location as the modelled hull stations, where
possible, which minimizes the number of interpolated stations and improves accuracy. The
Stations | Req Number is the number of stations you want to generate, which will be adjusted
based on the option chosen.
• Change the IRule option to Trapezoidal.
• By pressing the OK button twice, stations and offsets will automatically be generated for CO 1P
and added to the Volumes section of your project. This new volume will be attached to the
current compartment as shown below.

Spaces for CO 1P

Defining Bulkheads/Decks
Creating the tank CO 1P from boundaries was relatively simple. However, not all tanks are bounded by
perfectly flat planes. If you look at Cargo Oil tank # 4P (CO 4P) in the plan view of the general
arrangement drawing in the appendix, you will see that the starboard boundary (i.e. the bulkhead
between CO 4P and CO 4C) cannot be specified as easily as CO 1P.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 32

However, you do not need to revert to entering stations and offsets, because the SPE allows you to
define surfaces (either a Bulkhead or Deck), that can have complex shapes. You still need to enter
stations and offsets to define the Bulkhead, but since it can be used to define the boundary of multiple
compartments, it is generally more efficient to do so rather than having to deal with stations and offsets
for each of the associated compartments. Furthermore, Bulkheads are relatively easy to define using
stations and offsets because in essence they represent surfaces rather than complete volumes.

Create a new Bulkhead “Wing P” object

• Under the Geometry node in the project tree, click on the sub-node for Bulkheads/Decks.
• In the main work area, an empty, one-line table appears that allows you to name a Bulkhead (or
Deck) object. In the Name field, type “Wing P”. Press Enter.
• Click on the Wing P object that appears under Bulkheads/Decks in the project tree. If this does
not appear right away, you can right click on Bulkheads/Decks and select refresh tree.
Reviewing the general arrangement again, you will see that the wing bulkheads extend essentially from
the forward end of the Number 2 tanks to the aft end of the Number 4 tanks. While only the Number 4
tanks are affected by the shape of these bulkheads, it is good practice to define and use longitudinal
bulkheads in their entirety, even in regions where they represent perfectly flat planes.
This is especially true when you are involved in design activities, because once a set of compartments
are defined using named boundaries, it is easy to modify the boundaries and simply regenerate all the
tanks at the touch of a button. This facility will be illustrated shortly.

Define the offsets for “Wing P”

• In the Bulkhead/Deck Editor shown, click the Edit button to edit the offsets using the same
window we used for the hull and skegs. When defining surfaces with offsets the main difference
is that each station forms an open curve instead of a closed area.
• As discussed above, you will define the Wing P Bulkhead as extending from the aft end of the
number 4 tanks (Frame 20) to the forward end of the Number 2 tanks (Frame 74). The only
intermediate station that you will need to define occurs midway through the Number 4 tanks,
where the Bulkhead “knuckles” and bends in towards the centerline. Enter the longitudinal
location of these three stations as follows: Station 1 LCG: 12.0 m-AP (Frame 20), Station 2
LCG: 17.4 m-AP ( 5.4 m forward of Frame 20 = 12 m +5.4 m), Station 3 LCG: 44.4 m-AP
(Frame 74).
• Click on Station 1 (12 m-AP) to make it the active station. Given the geometry of this Bulkhead,
which has some shape in plan view but is otherwise perfectly vertical, you can consider that the
three stations you are going to define are like three vertical fence posts. You only need two points
to define the top and bottom of each fence post. For the fence post at station 1, enter the offsets
as follows: Offset 1 (-1.0, -3.0), Offset 2: (7.0, -3.0).

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 33

 For cutting operations it is best to extend bulkheads and decks beyond the bounds of the hull, so
the “fence posts” will be extending from below the base line to above the top of the deck.

• You have just created a fence post 12 m-AP and 3 m to port of centerline, and that extends from
below the base line to just above the deck.
• For the second station at 17.4 m-AP, copy offsets from the previous station (click on Station 2 to
make it active and then press the F4 key on your keyboard) and then modify the offsets to reflect
that the “fence post” at this station is further to port of centerline (4.5m to port) as follows: Offset
1: (-1.0, -4.5), Offset 2: (7.0, -4.5)
• For the third and last station, (44.4 m-AP) you can simply copy the offsets from the previous
station (click on Station 3 to make it active and then press the F4 key).
• From the File menu, select Apply Changes and Close.

Wing P bulkhead plan view

• You should now see the shape of the Wing P bulkhead superimposed on a faint outline of the hull
as above. On the tool bar menu just above the graphic view are a number of buttons that allow
you to view the displayed shape from a number of different angles. For example, clicking on the
icon will show the bulkhead in Plan View to help you verify that you have defined a shape that
looks like what you were trying to achieve from the general arrangement drawing.

This tutorial creates the bulkhead manually using offset entry to illustrate the differences
compared to volume offset entry. Options are provided in the bulkhead editor through the
Generate button to simplify the creation of simple decks and bulkheads.

Save your work

Create the starboard side Bulkhead “Wing S”

• As for the port and starboard skegs previously defined, the Wing S bulkhead is simply the mirror
image of Wing P.
• With the right mouse-button, click on the Wing P node in the project tree, right click and select
Tools | Duplicate and Mirror. A new bulkhead is automatically created and named Wing S.

Before moving on to use these bulkheads to define compartments, there is one more Bulkhead/Deck
object to create. Referring again to the general arrangement drawing, you will see that there is a stepped
deck separating the Machinery Space from the two aft void compartments. In this case you will define a

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 34

deck that will be used as the lower bound of the machinery space and the upper bound of the void
spaces. Note that while these bulkheads and decks are essentially the same type of object, the term
“Bulkhead” is used here to refer to a port or starboard boundary, whereas the term “Deck” is used to refer
to an upper or lower boundary. Longitudinal bounds (i.e. fore and aft bounds) cannot be defined by such
an object as a Bulkhead or Deck, but simply by the longitudinal location.

Create a new deck “Aft Deck” object

• Under the Geometry node in the project tree, click on the sub-node for Bulkheads/Decks.
• In the main work area, you should see the table containing the two previously defined wing
bulkheads. In the third empty row of this table, type “Aft Deck” in the Name field and click Enter.
• Click on the Aft Deck object that appears under Bulkheads/Decks in the project tree
• In the main work area, click the Edit button to edit the offsets.

You will define the stations of the Aft Deck in a similar manner to the wing bulkheads. Of course the
vertical fence post analogy does not work here, but the concept is similar in that you will use straight lines
oriented in the athwartship direction to define the shape of the deck. Note that in order to define the
vertical step in the deck you will need to define two stations at exactly the same location. The figure below
shows, in profile, the deck that you will be creating.

Aft Deck Station Locations

You can see that there are four athwartship fence posts (marked in green) required to define the deck
surface (shown in red). You need to create a station for each of the four posts, noting that Station 1 and
Station 2 will be in exactly the same longitudinal location (and similarly Station 3 and Station 4 will both be
at the same longitudinal location).

Define the geometry of “Aft Deck”

• Referring to the general arrangement drawing and the figure above, define the locations of the
four stations as follows:

Geometry of Aft Deck

• Clicking on Station 1 (3.0 m-AP) enter in the pair of offsets that will define the first athwartship
fence post as follows, noting that the fence post stretches from the starboard side of the hull right
across to the port side: Offset 1: (7.0, 9.0), Offset 2: (7.0, -9.0).

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 35

It is important to note that decks and bulkheads are cutting surfaces so you need to ensure that the
surface actually intersects the associated base hull model. There is no problem if the surface extends
beyond the boundaries of the base. It is not required that the edge of the cutting surface coincides exactly
with the boundary of the base compartment. You do have to be careful that the surface does not fall short
of intersecting the boundary. The two figures below illustrate this point.

Cutting surfaces

• The post defined by the offsets above is actually hovering above the deck, but when connected
with the next post which will be appropriately placed at the step height it forms a cutting surface
that will produce the desired results. Define the rest of the stations as follows:

Station 2 Station 3 Station 4

Offset 1: (3.6, 9.0) Offset 1: (3.6, 9.0) Offset 1: (-1.0, 9.0)
Offset 2: (3.6, -9.0) Offset 2: (3.6, -9.0) Offset 2: (-1.0, -9.0)

• When you have completed the above, select File | Apply Changes and Close from the menu and
your new deck should look like this:

Aft Deck Object

Save your work

Generating Compartment Offsets

It is now time to put the bulkheads and decks to use in defining the rest of the compartments. In addition
to being able to define the boundaries for a single compartment, as you did for CO 1P, the SPE allows
you to define the boundaries for multiple compartments at one time in convenient tabular form. You will

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 36

now go on to define the rest of the compartment boundaries, and subsequently, the compartments
themselves, using this tool. Note: Decks can only be used as vertical bounds, Therefore the Aft Deck
would be the below boundary for the Machinery Space and the above boundaries for the P and S Void
compartments.

Define the rest of the tanks

• Refer to the general arrangement as you fill in the generation table and carefully specify the
boundaries for each tank. Use also the following additional information:

Type Group name Density Permeability

Cargo oil tanks “Cargo Oil” 1.0 MT/m3 0.98
0.0279 LT/ft3
Salt water “SW Ballast” 1.025 MT/m3 0.98
ballast tanks
0.0286 LT/ft3
Machinery “Machinery” 1.0 MT/m3 0.85
space
0.0279 LT/ft3
Void spaces “Void” 1.0 MT/m3 0.90
0.0279 LT/ft3

• Go to the Geometry menu and select Compartments | Generate/Regenerate Multiple from

Boundaries.
• Enter the generation information in the table as needed. The top left and middle graphics can be
used to verify the bounds entered, and the top right graphic will show the currently generated
geometry for the item (if available). Bulkheads and Decks can be typed in or selected from the
tool button shown when a cell is selected. Your generation table should look something like
shown below when complete.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 37

 Generation table

• On the Tools menu select Generate All or press the F4 button. If you are regenerating an item
that already exists you will receive a warning message. Select Overwrite Existing Item | OK to all
for these items. Note that before pressing this button, all the names of the compartments may or
may not be in red font. This is to indicate that these items have not yet been generated (if red).
Once the generation process is complete, the names of all should be displayed in black font.
• Close the generation window and click on the Geometry/Compartments by Group node in the
tree. If you expand all of the groups under the Compartments by Group node, you will see all
new compartments that have been created from the generation table. You can click on any one of
them to see the geometry that has been generated.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 38

 Create compartments for the Skegs
• The next objective is to create compartments for the skegs. These items were added to the hull,
but no compartment was created. Compartments are required in order to damage these void
spaces.
• Click on Compartment by Group, a table will come up. In the last row enter a new name called
“Unassigned”. Hit Enter.
• In the Unassigned folder which will now appear under Compartments by Group, there will be a
blank table. In that enter a new compartment Name “SKEG S”. Now that you have made a
compartment object called SKEG S, select SKEG S under Compartment by Group | Unassigned
to open the compartment editor.
• Select the Spaces tab at the bottom of the screen. Under Tools, select Attach. A window will
appear (much like the one when you were adding the SKEG’s to the Hull). Select SKEG S and
click OK. You have now attached SKEG S to the Unassigned compartment group.
• Repeat the previous steps for SKEG P.

Set default densities

• By default all compartment default fluid densities are set to 1.0 MT/m3. Make sure the densities
provided above are entered for all compartments by selecting each compartment group in the
tree as below. The density will be used as the default when running an analysis, but can be
easily changed.

Setting default densities

Save your work

Entering Loads
In the previous two sections, you defined first the hull form and then the internal compartmentation of the
hull. At this point you have completely defined a 3-dimensional model of the barge. It is now the time to
complete another significant element of the description of the barge, which is the characteristics of the
various “loads” that can be placed on the barge during its operation.
The most significant of these loads, of course, is the weight of the barge itself, or the lightship weight.
Refer to the tables in the Appendix for the lightship information. The lightship weight distribution is
described in two alternative tables: first, as ordinates of a curve describing the weight per unit length
(MT/m), and secondly as a set of weight blocks with fore and aft bounds and a longitudinal center.

Enter the lightship weight information

• Expand the Loads node in the tree view and click on Lightship.
• In the main work area, you will see an entry form with four tabs across the bottom. The first tab is
labeled Totals, and this will allow you to enter the global lightship weight and centers of gravity.
• Using this form, fill in the lightship weight data as below.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 39

 Lightship Totals Edit Window

• Note that a row is provided to enter a “Constant” weight. This can be used in cases where a
significant and permanent weight has been added to the lightship (such as a fixed crane or
permanent ballast). Entering a weight in this row effectively makes it a part of the lightship weight
that cannot be changed during the analysis. For the purposes of this sample barge, you can leave
this row blank.

Enter the lightship weight distribution

• The next step is to enter the longitudinal distribution of the lightship weight. As mentioned before,
you can use either one of two methods for describing this distribution. For this sample exercise,
you will use the Weight Ordinates method, however, this is simple table entry, and the Weight
Blocks method would be equally sufficient.
• Click on the Weight Ordinates tab at the bottom of the main work area.
• Enter the weight distribution data as shown below.

Entering weight distribution data

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 40

Note that for any given model, a lightship weight distribution can be entered as a combination of a weight
ordinate curve and a table of weight blocks. The resulting distributions are simply superimposed on each
other and can be displayed by clicking on the Combined tab at the bottom of the entry screen.

Check the lightship weight distribution

• The last thing to check is that the lightship weight distribution that you entered matches the total
lightship weight figures that you entered. Click on the Totals tab at the bottom of the main work
area. You can see now that, in addition to the total lightship weight that you originally entered, a
second calculation of the total based on your entered distribution is displayed as in the figure
below.

Totals Lightship Weight Distribution

• If these two values did not match, you would see a notice in red at the bottom. At this point you
could take one of two actions: 1-Click on the Adjust button to add one or more weight blocks over
the length of the ship to force the distribution to match the total; 2-Check your entered distribution
for a mistake. In the case of this sample barge, a mistake could be the only reason that there is a
discrepancy between the global weight and that calculated from the distribution.

Tank Capacities
Another major category of Loads is that of the operational tanks and their capacities. The definition of a
tank in the Loads section is not to be confused with the definition of the corresponding compartment in
the Geometry section. Describing a tank in the Loads section will enable you to use it as a tank in the
various analyses, varying its fill level and contents in order to describe an operational loading condition.
For example, the CO 1P compartment is a tank that may be empty, full, or anywhere in between, and so
for this reason it needs to be established as a tank load that may be manipulated in the description of any
loading condition. By contrast, the Void F compartment is not a tank, and so need not be included as a
Load.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 41

The information for tank capacities is typically found in a Trim and Stability Book or Loading Manual for an
existing vessel. Since this information is not available for this sample barge, you are simply going to
generate the information from the tank geometry and assumptions concerning their contents.

Generate tank load objects from compartment geometry

• From the main menu, select Loads | Generate Loads from Compartments.

Generating Loads from Compartments

• This window represents a tool for generating tank information. Refer to the user manual for a
complete description. For now, you are going to use this to generate not only the tank load and its
related capacity information, but also individual tank tables (i.e. fluid level dependent properties)
for all of the compartments in which you are interested.
• Make sure the Selected Compartments radio button is selected and click on Select.
• In the tree view of compartments that appears, click on the Cargo Oil and Ballast groups to
ensure that all tanks within those two groups are selected and then click OK. Verify that all eleven
tanks (nine cargo and two ballast) are listed in the summary.
• Click on the Options tab at the top of the window. Ensure that the Always radio button is selected,
and click on the Generate Loads button at the bottom of the window.
• If you click on the Tanks by Group node of the project tree view, you will see that there is now a
Cargo Oil and Ballast group. In the main window, a table showing summary information for each
group (total volume, density, etc.) is displayed. Select a color for each group.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 42

 Tanks by Group

• By clicking on the Cargo Oil group node, you will see a capacity table for all of the cargo oil tanks,
describing each individual tank’s capacity, center of gravity and free surface values. A similar
table is available for the Ballast tanks.

Capacity Table for All Cargo Oil Tanks

• One final item to check is the tank table generation. For each of the tanks listed in the capacity
table, a table of fill level-dependent properties is generated. By clicking on the Tables | Tank
Tables | CO 1P node in the project tree view, you will see the data that is generated for Cargo Oil
No. 1 Port. Note that you can choose which values to display graphically in the upper right portion
of the screen.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 43

 Tank Table for CO 1P

Designate the CO tanks as oil carrying tanks

• For future analyses related to oil outflow calculations all oil tanks need to be designated as
carrying oil. This is just a simple modification of the Cargo Oil capacity table. Click on the Loads |
Tanks by Group | Cargo Oil node in the tree view.
• Click on the column title Type to select the entire column.
• Select “Cargo Oil” from the drop down menu and hit Enter.
• Make sure “Yes” is shown within the “Oil?” column.
• You have now properly designated these tanks as carrying oil. This will be important when this
barge is stranded on a rock, and you want to calculate how much oil will outflow at low tide. This
setting can also be changed during analysis but is better to establish in the ship project.
• Similarly, you can also define similar settings for the SW Ballast group. Instead of Cargo Oil
select “SW Ballast” and set the “Oil?” column to “No” or leave it blank.

Designating Oil and Ballast Tanks

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 44

 Save your work

Generating Hull Data

The next set of major data elements to be developed in order to complete the model for intact stability
analyses are several tables describing the properties of the hull. If you click on the Tables node in the
project tree view, you will notice that in addition to the Tank Tables that you generated in the last section,
there are also the general tables related to the hull shape--the Hydrostatic, Bonjean, and Cross Curve
(GZ) tables.
HECSALV/POSSE’s intact stability analysis provides the facility to calculate results either based on these
tables or by performing a direct calculation of hull properties using the hull offsets. To enable the
calculation based on tables, the Hydrostatics, Bonjeans, and Cross Curves need to be entered.
As with the tank capacities, the Hydrostatic, Bonjean, and GZ (Cross Curves) tables can be either
entered from a Trim and Stability book or generated from the 3-D geometry that you have already
defined. In most cases, if the hydrostatic table data is available from a Trim and Stability book or some
other approved source, it is advisable to enter it into the SPE for existing vessels. The reason for this is
that the SPE provides the facility to compare this entered data to the same data calculated from the hull
form that you defined. This can be an invaluable check of the 3-D offsets that you originally entered to
define the hull.
However, as these tables are not provided in the Barge specification, you will generate them
automatically from the hull.

Generate Hydrostatic Table

• From the main menu, select Tables | Generate Hydrostatics | Single Table...
• You will be presented with the options window below. Leave the General options as they are and
click on the Drafts tab.

Hydrostatic Table Generation Options

• You can see that a draft range has been provided according to a set of default options. Since
defaults can be edited, you might see different values to those displayed in the figure above.
• While the above drafts are perfectly adequate, you might want to use more typical values that you
might see in a Trim and Stability book. There are two ways to do this: one is to edit the defaults,

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 45

 and then click Use Defaults. The other is to click on the Change Keel Drafts or the Change BL
Drafts button and use a one-time definition of the drafts. In this case, since you are also going to
be generating bonjean curves using draft ranges as well, it is more efficient to define a default
range now that can be used later.
• Click on the Edit Defaults button. The main Calculation Options window should appear with the
Hydros/Bonj tab selected. Enter/select the settings as shown in the figure below and click OK.

Hydrostatics/Bonjean Generation Defaults

• Once you hit OK, you will be prompted to use these new default settings. Click YES.
• Note that you have selected not to include trim corrections so the values on the right hand side
will not be used. As a result, if you choose in HECSALV/POSSE to calculate results using Tables,
the hull properties will be based only on these “even keel” values. However, if you choose to
perform a direct calculation, HECSALV/POSSE will ignore these tables and calculate the
properties at the exact trim and heel depending on the load condition.
• Now that you have your drafts set, click the OK button at the bottom of the Hydrostatics
Generation Options window.
• Your newly created hydrostatic table pops up or can be viewed by clicking on the Tables |
Hydrostatic Tables | Hull node of the project tree view. Note that the table is named “Hull” to
indicate that it was calculated from the hull offsets that you defined earlier.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 46

 Hull Hydrostatic Table

Generate the Bonjean table

• In similar manner you can create the Bonjean tables and the Cross curves. From the main menu,
select Tables | Generate Bonjeans.
• You will be presented with an options window that shows the drafts that will be used to generate
the tables. You can see that the defaults that you modified earlier have been used here and no
further modification is necessary. Click Generate.
• Your newly created bonjean table can be viewed by clicking on the Tables | Bonjean Tables | Hull
node of the project tree view. Now you may click a station in the left hand table and the
appropriate Bonjean is marked.

Hull Bonjean Table

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 47

 Generate the Cross Curves table
• From the main menu, select Tables | Generate Cross Curves | Single-Set
• You will automatically be presented with an options window that shows you the default heel
angles and displacements that will be used to generate the curves. It also allows you to change
the settings or edit the defaults as before.
• Select the Heel Angles tab. Then click on the Change button and edit the heel angles so that they
are the same as shown below.

Generating cross curves table

• Select the Displ/Draft tab. Before changing the displacements make sure the Generate By
Displacement radio button is selected. Click on the Change button and edit the displacements so
that they are the same as shown above.
• Click on the Generate button.
• Your newly created cross curves can be viewed by clicking on the Tables | Cross Curves | Hull
node of the project tree view.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 48

 Hull Cross Curves

If you make any changes to the hull offsets, you can quickly regenerate all three tables by simply
selecting Tables | Generate All Default Hull Tables from the main menu. Note that the draft, heel angle,
and displacement ranges will be according to the default settings.

Save your work

Evaluation Criteria
The last major data category provided by the SPE is Evaluation Criteria. On most vessels there will be a
complete set of stability and strength criteria imposed on the operation of the vessel. Required GM curves
and Allowable Shear Forces and Bending Moments are among the most common criteria. For the
purpose of this barge, you will simply enter a load line.

Enter a Load Line of 4.0m

• Select the Evaluation Criteria | Load Lines node from the project tree view.
• In the blank table that is displayed in the main work area, type the values below.(Keel = 4.0125m)
• You will see a horizontal load line superimposed on the profile of your barge. Note that any
number of load lines could be entered (Winter LL, Tropical, etc.)

Entering Load Lines

At this stage, you have entered all the data required in order to perform a wide variety of analyses. The
resulting file Xbarge.SHP is now available for use in the main HECSALV/POSSE program as well as
supplementary analysis modules.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 49

 Save your work

Model Review
Before performing analyses using your new ship project of the barge the final step is to review and
validate the model. Model review helps you find typical modeling problems and tells you what types of
analyses can be done with the data entered. A full set of tools for this purpose are provided on the
Validate menu.
Critical errors are shown in red and warnings are shown in blue. Critical errors should be corrected in the
ship project before any analyses are conducted. Warnings are an indication of possible problems and
should be reviewed. Items are checked if they have been modeled in the SPE and no critical errors have
been detected. Press the Update button to recheck the project for errors if any changes are made while
the Model review window is open.

Model Review

Model review can, and should, be done at all stages of the modeling process. See the user manual for
more details.

Barge Tutorial Defining the Model • 50

Sample Analyses
Overview
This section presents sample exercises and provides a step-by-step approach to using
HECSALV/POSSE to evaluate the incident and develop a salvage plan in response. The exercises make
use of the simple barge model created in the first section of this tutorial, and have been chosen to
illustrate the main concepts and the various tools provided.

There are many alternative responses to any casualty. For each sample exercise described in
this chapter, the salvage response plans that are developed may not represent the only solutions.
Throughout the analysis, explanations are provided for why certain approaches are taken.

Prerequisites
The sample barge model will be used in all exercises. If you have not completed the first part of this
tutorial, Defining the Model, a completed version of the sample barge model is available.
It is assumed that you are familiar with the basic functions of managing ship model files (*.sh2) and plan
files (*.pl2). You should also be familiar at least with the following terms relating to the general
HECSALV/POSSE user interface:
• Menu
• Tool Bar
• Tree View
• Active Condition, Base Condition, Delta Condition
• Status Bar
• Calculation Type (Intact, Free-Floating, Stranded)
• Auto Update
For further information and for detailed use of HECSALV/POSSE, please refer to the user manuals.

Objectives
This sample exercise involves a basic grounding scenario and guides you step-by-step through the
description of the incident and the development of two alternative salvage plans. By the end of this
exercise, you will have learned the fundamental concepts of creating a Salvage Plan through the
judicious arrangement of a sequence of Conditions. Concepts that are covered include:
• Conditions
• Salvage Plan
• Calculation Type
• Oil Outflow

Barge Tutorial Sample Analyses • 51

Description of the Incident
A tank barge has broken loose from its anchorage and ran aground. The ship model for this barge exists
in your library, so a detailed salvage analysis can be performed. The owners have provided the following
background information regarding the incident:
TelCon – Owner XBarge
Tank barge XBarge broke free from her moorings at 1300 CST (21 June) and drifted aground, stern first. At the time of impact, she
was moving almost directly astern with only a very slight angle to starboard. She remains stranded with several of her aft
compartments flooded.
Cargo tanks 4S and 4C have flooded completely as has the aft machinery space. It is uncertain whether the starboard skeg, which
is essentially a void compartment, has been damaged or not, but it seems possible.
Before the incident occurred, the observed drafts were as follows:
Fwd Marks: 3.86m
Aft Marks: 3.92m
The density of the cargo oil being carried is 0.70 MT/m3
All Cargo tanks were filled to the 95% level, except for No1 P & S which were only filled to the 55% level. There are two ballast
tanks (No. 3 P & S) but they were both empty. The barge is now stranded on what appears to be a single pinnacle. The draft marks
now read as follows:
Fwd Marks: 3.8 m
Aft Marks: 3.2 m
She is also heeling 4.5 degrees to port whereas before, there was no heel at all.

Defining the Incident Initial Condition (Before Stranding)

One of the first steps in any salvage situation is to define as accurately as possible the initial or pre-
incident condition of the vessel. In this case the information available is reasonably complete and
straightforward.

Start up HECSALV/POSSE and load the ship model for the XBarge.
• Click on Start | All Programs | HECSALV8 to open the HECSALV program group and then click
on HECSALV 8.1 to open the analysis software. You will be prompted to select a ship project to
get started. Browse for your XBarge model.
• Once loaded a single condition will be created as the starting point for your analysis. This
condition is usually a lightship condition.

For the purpose of this exercise, it is best to leave AutoUpdate mode “ON”, this is important. The
bottom right corner (within the status bar) shows the status. Select Tools | AutoUpdate from the
menu bar to change it. With AutoUpdate set to “ON” all results will be recalculated automatically
every time a condition is changed in any way. In subsequent exercises, involving a large number
of delta conditions, it may be advantageous to turn AutoUpdate “OFF” while minor updates are
being made. Otherwise, it may take some time to recalculate a large number of delta conditions
every time a single change is made.

Barge Tutorial Sample Analyses • 52

 Develop the initial condition by entering tank information.
• Open up the Tank and Cargo Entry screen by selecting Condition | Tankage and Cargo Entry.
(Most of the time this window will already be selected).
• Select the tab labeled Cargo Oil.
• In the column labeled Density enter in the value provided by the owners (0.7 MT/m3).

To enter a value for an entire column at one time, click on the column heading. You will see the
entire column is automatically selected, and the cursor is placed in the top field. Type in the value
and hit enter.

• In the column labeled % Full, enter in the tank fill levels according to the owner’s information
listed in the yellow sections on the previous page.
• Since there were no other tanks or weight items to report, this should completely describe the
initial condition.

Check your results

• Select Results | Results Summary for a comprehensive list of stability results
• Total Displacement = 3717 MT
• Draft at Aft Marks = 3.89 m
• Draft at Fwd Marks = 3.84 m
• List / Heel angle = 0 deg
• These results can also be shown on the results bar. Right click on the results bar on the right of
your screen and select Edit Intact Result Fields to control what is displayed on the results bar. A
quick check of the calculated drafts vs. those reported by the owner helps to validate the load
condition that was entered in the previous step.

Within the HECSALV/POSSE User Interface, there are many ways to arrange the individual
windows. A very basic and useful view to start out with any analysis involves the Results | Profile
and Plan View and the Condition | Tankage and Cargo Entry view. With these two views, you
have what basically looks like an onboard loading computer (see below), and you have all you
need to quickly and easily establish the vessel’s loading condition and check the resulting stability
and strength calculations.

Barge Tutorial Sample Analyses • 53

 Typical Panel Views

Save your work

• Before saving, rename the condition by right-clicking on Condition 1 in the tree view, and
selecting Rename Condition 1.
• Type in “Intact”.
• Click on the diskette icon in the tool bar, or select File|Save Plan As from the menu.
• Name your plan file “Exercise 1” and click Save.

Current Condition (After Stranding)

The next step is to develop the damaged condition of the vessel immediately following the incident.

Using all of the information available, it is important to describe the actual condition of the
damaged vessel as accurately as possible. Mistakes made at this stage will be carried all the way
through the subsequent analysis.

One way to mitigate the risk of getting it wrong in the beginning is to develop several possible scenarios,
and examine them in parallel. As more information is made available, you can then simply eliminate the
scenarios that were based on erroneous assumptions.
For this simple example, the information from the owner is fairly comprehensive. However, there was still
some uncertainty as to whether the starboard skeg was damaged or not. One way to deal with this
uncertainty is to examine two different scenarios, one in which the skeg is breached and another in which
it remains intact.

Barge Tutorial Sample Analyses • 54

 Create a Delta condition
• Right Click on the Intact condition in the tree view.
• Select Add Delta Condition.
• The name of the newly added condition (Intact-1) should appear in edit mode.
• Right click on the newly added condition and select Rename Condition. Type in “AGRD1”.
AGRD1 stands for “Aground 1” and is meant to associate the newly created delta condition with
the condition of the vessel immediately after running aground. The “1” indicates that this is the
first of possibly several conditions that will be used to describe alternative sets of assumptions
surrounding the initial grounding.

Specify which tanks have been breached

• Make sure the AGRD1 node is the active node.
• Select Damage | Damage Entry menu option to open the Damaged Compartment Specification
window.
• In the compartment list on the right side of the Select Damage tab double-click on the following
four compartments (double-clicking in this list toggles the compartment between damaged and
intact): CO 4S, CO 4C, Machy Space, SKEG S.
• All four compartments should appear in red as below. Hit OK.

Specifying Breached Tanks

Detailed Damage Analysis

The HECSALV/POSSE damage default has assumed that all of the oil in CO 4C and CO 4P has flowed
out and been replaced by flooded water. In reality, especially for bottom grounding, much of the oil will
remain inside the tank due to the hydrostatic pressure balance with the external water line.
HECSALV/POSSE provides a facility for modeling this affect, so that this key quantity can be predicted.

Barge Tutorial Sample Analyses • 55

 Define the damage in more detail.
• Make sure the AGRD1 node is the active condition.
• Select Damage | Damage Entry and select the Detailed Damage Entry tab.
• For CO 4C and CO 4S switch the Outflow Opt calculation methodology from “All Outflow” to
“Hydro Balance” which means the oil outflow will be based upon hydrostatic balance.
• Make sure the Outflow “Oil?” column shows “Yes” for both cargo tanks.

Detailed Damaged Compartment Specification

Define the oil hydrostatic balance points

• Click on the Hydrostatic Balance Points button at the bottom of the windows. A new window
called Edit Space pops up.
• All oil compartments are automatically given a default pressure balance location. The pressure
balance calculations are only activated however when the Outflow Opt calculation mode is
switched to “Hydro Balance” (see previous step).
• By default, the lowest point in the tank is defined. This minimizes the oil outflow. That point is
marked in the graphic and on the left hand table. To define a different point, just adapt the
Location of Damage.
• It is possible to change the default Low point location by typing in new coordinates. Since this is
essentially a bottom damage case (as opposed to side damage where the opening might be
higher than the tank bottom) it makes sense to leave the pressure balance point on the baseline
of the tank. However, according to the estimate of the location of the damage, the pressure
balance location should be moved off the centerline to the starboard side, rear corner of the tank.
This is important especially since the barge is heeled to port, effectively raising the pressure
balance point above a wedge of volume containing oil.
• In the field for the transverse location of Low Point, type in a transverse value of “3” to indicate
that the point is 3m to starboard. The longitudinal coordinate is “12.0” m fwd and the vertical
coordinate is “0.0”.

Barge Tutorial Sample Analyses • 56

 Pressure Balance Location for CO 4C

To assist in pinpointing the boundaries of the compartment, the table in the bottom left hand side
of the Pressure Balance Location screen provides a “points-eye-view” of the boundaries of the
tank based on the point’s current location. In this way, it was simple to see that in order to move
the default point transversely out to the starboard boundary of CO 4C, it was necessary to type in
a value of 3m to stbd.

• Take a quick look at the Pressure Balance Location for CO 4S. To do so, click on the next arrow
button in the lower left corner. Check if the Location of the Damage is identical to that you have
defined for CO 4C (12.0F; 0.0; 3.0S). If not, make edits where necessary.

Pressure Balance Location for CO 4S

• Then click Close and then click OK.

Barge Tutorial Sample Analyses • 57

 Refer to the user manual for more information regarding the Hydrostatic Balance Calculations.

Describe the nature of the grounding

• Select Ground | Ground Definition Wizard.
• To define the drafts for the stranding, press the Observed Drafts radio button and select Draft at
Marks, Aft/Fwd/Heel from the drop-down box. Enter the drafts as shown below. A variety of
approaches for defining the observed drafts are provided. In this case we are simply entering the
known drafts at the forward and aft marks and the heel angle

Observed Draft Entry

• The No. of Pinnacles radio button should already be set to “One Pinnacle.
• A Ground Type of “Rock” should already be selected as well.
• Click OK. You have specified a one-pinnacle grounding on a rock. Since the drafts were
specified, HECSALV/POSSE will automatically calculate the location of the ground reaction
based on the initial condition and the specified damaged tanks. Both the definition of the
damaged compartments (step 4) and the definition of the ground type are now being taken into
account in the calculation of results. Several additional values will now appear in the status bar,
including Ground Reaction.

Check your results in Results | Results Summary

• Draft Fwd = 3.8 m
• Draft Aft = 3.2 m
• Heel angle = 4.5 deg. – port
• Oil Outflow Weight = 123 MT
• Ground Reaction = 522 MT

Save your work

In addition to checking your results as above, you should also check the validity of the information
received in the incident report and the assumptions that you made based on that information.
One way to do this is by opening Results | Profile and Plan View. In the stranded calculation

Barge Tutorial Sample Analyses • 58

 mode, the Profile and Plan View will show the damaged tanks (red framed), the center of the
ground reaction (yellow marked) and the percentage filling (dark grey = filled, light grey = empty,
blue = water), as shown below. In order to make the Profile and Plan window below the only
visual on the screen, you may have to select the + sign and select maximize view.

Profile and Plan View

If you consider that the barge ran aground while it was moving directly astern or at a slight angle to
starboard, then the location of the ground reaction as calculated by HECSALV/POSSE appears to be in a
logical place in relation to the tanks that were breached and the resulting attitude of the barge.
If you arrive at this stage of the analysis, and the location of the ground reaction does not appear to be in
a location that would be consistent with the flooded tanks then that should prompt you to review the
information provided by the owner, and the subsequent data entered into HECSALV/POSSE.

Create an alternate initial grounding condition

• Instead of creating a new condition from scratch, Right Click on the AGRD1 condition, and select
Copy Condition.
• Rename the newly created Copy of AGRD1 to “AGRD2”.

There is a relationship of conditions within the plan hierarchy. If you consider the Intact condition
to be the parent condition, you would want AGRD1 and AGRD2 to be siblings. This reflects the
fact that these are alternate views of the same situation and the intention is to pursue two
independent, parallel paths of analysis. If AGRD2 was created as a delta condition to AGRD1
(effectively making it a grandchild of INTACT condition), then any changes made to AGRD1
would also affect AGRD2, making it impossible to pursue independent solutions.

Barge Tutorial Sample Analyses • 59

 Revise the damage tank specification
• Make AGRD2 the active condition.
• Select Damage | Damage Entry.
• Double-click SKEG S in the compartment list in order to toggle its status from damaged to intact.
Hit OK.
• Make sure you are still using the ST calculation mode. Check the mode on the toolbar.

• Of course, the results comparing to the AGRD1 condition are quite similar. In the following
section, the focus will be on developing a plan based on the AGRD1 condition. Nevertheless, it is
important to have this alternate view of the damage situation. The early part of salvage planning
involves defining the boundaries of the solution, and until more information is made available, this
is one way to ensure that the scope of the problem is covered.

Save your work

Developing the Plan

In the preceding steps, the incident was defined, starting with the pre-incident intact condition, and ending
with two alternate descriptions of the stranded barge. It is now time to begin looking forward and
developing a plan for floating the barge free.
At this point, the owners provide some additional information:
Telecon – Owner XBarge
21 June at 1350 CST
Nearly an hour after the incident and no action has been taken yet. The owners inform you that the tide is rising and will reach its
high mark at 1700 CST. At that time, the water will be 0.7m higher than the level at which the incident occurred.
They have a pump on board that is capable of 55 m3/hr.
The following low tide is predicted to occur at 0300 on the 22 June, and will occur at a level that is 0.85m below the level at which
the incident occurred.

High Tide
If they started the pump now, they would only be able to transfer roughly 120 MT of cargo (174 m3) by
the time high tide came around in 3 hours time. It is worth seeing what the ground reaction would be at
high tide after transferring the oil, but it is unlikely that with the current resources, the barge will float free
at the next high tide.

Barge Tutorial Sample Analyses • 60

 With AGRD1 as the active condition, create a delta condition and rename it
“HT” for high tide.

Adjust the tide height to reflect the high water mark described by the owners.
• Select Ground | Change Tide/Tide Cycle.
• Fill the table: Time Description “HT”, Day “0”, Time “1700”. Enter Tide Change “0.7”.
• Make sure the radio button for Change Water Depths by Tide Change is selected and click OK.

Edit Time/Tide

Check your results

• Ground Reaction = 372 MT

With HT as the active condition, create a delta condition and rename it “XFR” to
represent a condition in which a transfer of oil has taken place.

It is advisable to keep condition names as short as practical (ex. “XFR” rather than “Transfer”) so that you
can maximize the results and entry area of the User Interface, and still keep a large amount of the tree
view visible. This is especially important as the layers of delta conditions grow.

Barge Tutorial Sample Analyses • 61

 Simulate the transfer of 120 MT from CO 1S to CO 1P in an effort to heel the
vessel away from the ground reaction.
• Open or switch to the Tankage and Cargo Entry screen and select the Cargo tab.
• Right-click anywhere on the row for CO 1S, and select Other Tools | Tank Transfer from CO 1S.
• The Source Tanks, CO 1S, should already be selected, and the amount available in the tank to
transfer is shown in Value column.
• In the list of Destination Tanks, select CO 1P, then hit Enter, and note that the available capacity
in CO 1P (i.e. the maxim amount you could transfer in) is 160 MT and is now shown in the Value
column.
• Change Max Weight to Target Weight within the Type column. Hit Enter. Note that the Value
column is set to zero. Type “120” into the field, hit Enter, and then click Transfer.
• Use the cross in the upper right corner of the dialog box to close the entry.
The idea behind this step is to simulate what would happen if the maximum amount of cargo oil possible
(limited in this case by the pump capacity) was transferred from CO 1S to CO 1P. This is only one of the
possible transfers that could be made, and as you will see in the next step, it is not the most effective one.
The ground reaction was reduced as anticipated, but not enough to get anywhere close to floating free at
high tide. CO 1P is an obvious choice for the tank to transfer weight into because there is space
available, for one thing, but it is also the tank that is the most “opposite” to the ground reaction in terms of
the barge’s center of buoyancy, and therefore will have the most impact. In the previous step, weight was
transferred from the adjacent tank, CO 1S. A better choice is likely to be CO 4P, as will be verified in the
next steps.

Undo the transfer made in previous step

• In Tankage and Cargo Entry screen, right click anywhere on the line for CO 1S, and select Link to
Parent Loads in HT.
• Repeat step a) for CO 1P.

For any delta condition, if you make a change to a tank in the Tankage and Cargo Entry screen,
the weight field for that tank will appear in bold type. This is to indicate that it is a value that
deviates from the parent (or base) condition. If you make a change that you wish to undo, it is
important that you follow the steps above in order to re-link the delta condition’s value with that of
the base condition. If this is not carried out, then future changes to the base condition will not be
reflected in the delta condition.

Simulate the transfer of 120 MT from CO 4P to CO 1P in an effort to trim the

vessel away from the ground reaction.
• Follow the steps in the 120 MT transfer, except select CO 4P as the Source Tank.

Check your results

• Ground Reaction = 284MT

While it is still not enough to float the vessel free, pumping oil from CO 4P instead of CO 1S proves to be
the more effective course of action.
At this point, contact is made with the owners to find out more details if possible about the actual damage
sustained. They have had a diver in the water and have the following to report.

Barge Tutorial Sample Analyses • 62

Telecon – Owner XBarge
21 June at 1445 CST
They started pumping oil from CO 4P to CO 1P at 1400 CST. The diver confirms the following:
The type of grounding is, in fact, a single rock pinnacle.
The starboard skeg (SKEG S) has in fact been breached.

Low Tide
In the process of defining the “boundaries” of the situation at hand, it is important to look at the low tide
mark, as it will typically be associated with the worst conditions during the salvage operation. Shear
forces and bending moments are likely to peak at low tide, as will the oil outflow.

Define the low tide

• Adjust the tide height to reflect the low water mark described by the owner.
• Create a Delta condition. Right click on the AGRD1 condition icon in the Plan Explorer and select
Add Delta Condition & Change Tide.

Adding Delta Condition

• The Edit Time/Tide dialogue appears. Fill the table: Time Description “LT”, Day “1”, Time “0300”,
Tide Change “ -0.85”. Note the value for Tide is updated from 0.000 to -0.85.
• Click OK.

Edit Time/Tide Option

Barge Tutorial Sample Analyses • 63

 • Right click on the AGRD1-2 condition and rename it to “LT”.
• Open the Results Summary window and select the Ground tab. You can also select the brown
pinnacle icon on the menu toolbar. This window provides you with an overview about the main
results. It displays, amongst others, the water depth over ground, ground reaction and force to
free.

Check your results

• Ground Reaction = 661MT

With LT as the active condition, check the oil outflow.

• With LT as the active condition select the Results Summary window from the main menu. Under
the Damage tab choose the Oil Outflow tab. The oil outflow summary should look like the
following. If you get different results, check if AutoUpdate is On (lower right corner on the Status
Bar). Hit the F5 button for a manual update.

Oil Outflow update

• Note that the total oil outflow is broken into two components, Hydrostatic Loss and Exchange
Loss. The Hydrostatic Loss is defined as the oil which outflows immediately as the pressure head
differential between the oil in the tank and the external waterline reaches equilibrium. In this
exercise, this hydrostatic loss accounts for most of the oil outflow. The Exchange Loss does not
happen immediately. Any oil that is in a volume of the tank that is lower than the damage opening
is assumed to “leak out” over time.
• The results can be graphically reviewed by selecting the Section Viewer (using either the tool bar
button, , or selecting the Results | Section Cut View menu item), and cutting a section close to
the transverse bulkhead between the machinery space and the No.4 CO tanks by clicking in the
profile/plan view.

Barge Tutorial Sample Analyses • 64

 Section Cut View Maximized

• Note, as mentioned before, the wedge of oil that has leaked out of CO 4C is due to exchange
loss.

Save your work

With LT as the active condition, create a delta condition and rename it “XFR”
for Transfer condition.

Simulate the transfer of oil that might be affected by the time the low tide
occurs.
• Similar to steps above we are going to transfer the following oil. But in this case we make use of
another transfer tool which is designed to deal with multiple transfers.
• Open the Tankage and Cargo Entry. Select the Damaged tab and right click anywhere on the CO
4C tank. Pick Other Tools | Tank Transfer Multiple Steps.
• The Weight Transfer Wizard pops up. We like to do the following transfers (your numbers may be
a bit different but it is important to know how to shift tank cargo between different compartments)
Within the Available Sources click on CO 4P and within the Available Destinations on CO 1P.
Before hitting the Add Transfer button type “160” in the field below.
• Repeat the previous procedure for the three remaining transfers. 160 MT from CO 4P to CO 1P
(CO 1P is now full), 46 MT from CO 4P to CO 1S (CO 4P is now empty), 114 MT from CO 3C to
CO 1S (CO 1S is now full), 10 MT from CO 3C to CO 2P (CO 2P is now full)

Barge Tutorial Sample Analyses • 65

 • When you are done compare your screen with the picture below. Click Apply Transfer(s) and
Close.

Applying transfers

• By the time low tide occurs the pump will have been running for 13 hours allowing a total of a little
over 715m3 (500 MT) of oil to be shifted around. Without resorting to transferring oil into ballast or
void spaces, the transfer plan above involves only 330 MT, which would easily be accomplished
in that time.

Check your results

• Ground Reaction = 487 MT

As time passes, the oil transfer continues and completes, and low tide arrives at 0300 in the morning on
the following day.
Telecon – Owner XBarge
22 June at 0300 CST
They have completed the transfer plan as instructed and have taken another draft reading as follows:
Fwd Marks: 4.5m
Aft Marks: 1.65m
Heel is 1.5 deg to port
The next high tide will occur at 1100 CST, and will be at a level that is 1.8m above the current low tide mark. As a back up, they
have requested the equipment needed to pressurize a damaged compartment - if necessary. This pressurizing equipment is
capable of generating a maximum pressure of 0.15 bar.

While the observed drafts are fairly close to the calculated values, they are slightly off which indicates that
the ground reaction, as calculated initially in the AGRD1 condition, most likely does not quite reflect the
current condition.

Barge Tutorial Sample Analyses • 66

 With XFR as the active condition, create a delta condition and rename it “LT
from drafts”.

Redefine the grounding using the most current draft readings

• With LT from drafts as the active condition select Ground | Ground Definition Wizard.
• Click Observed Drafts and define the waterplane as before. For Draft at Aft Marks and Draft at
Fwd Marks, type in the values provided by the owner (Aft = 1.65m, Fwd = 4.5m)
• Enter a heel angle of “1.5P” (or “-1.5”)
• Make sure the One Pinnacle radio button is selected.
• Click OK.
• Review the Profile and Plan Stranded to ensure that the location of the ground reaction is
consistent. The location of the ground reaction should have moved slightly forward in relation to
the previously calculated location

Check your results

• Ground reaction = 509 MT
It remains to be seen now whether the transfer action will be enough to float the barge free by the next
high tide.

Adjust the tide height to reflect the low water mark described by the owners.
• With LT from drafts as the active condition, right click on it and select Add a Delta Condition &
Change Tide.
• Enter the Edit Time/Tide Entry. Fill the table: Time Description “2nd HT”, Day “1”, Time “1100”,
Tide Change “1.8”. Make sure Change Water Depths by Tide is selected.
• Note the Tide field is auto updated to 0.95 m. Click OK.
• Rename the condition to “2nd HT”.

Barge Tutorial Sample Analyses • 67

 Check your results
• Ground Reaction = 125MT

While the ground reaction is greatly reduced, the barge will still be stranded at the second high tide.
However, with eight hours to spare, the owners will be able to bring the pressurizing equipment into effect
in order to force the flooded water out of the machinery space.

With 2nd HT as the active condition, create a delta condition and rename it
“Press”.

With Press as the active condition, simulate the pressurization of the damaged
machinery space.
• Open the Damage Entry window and activate the Detailed Damage Entry tab.
• For Machy Space, enter a value of “0.15” bar into the column labeled Pressure, and hit Enter,
then hit OK.

Check your results

• Ground Reaction = 0 MT

At this point, you have solved the problem of floating the barge free.

Save your work

Summary
In this example, the solution was quite simple and could have been achieved in a number of different
ways. However a complete analysis was performed and captured by a series of conditions. By using delta
conditions to capture various stages of the analysis, it is now possible to retrace the steps taken, review
intermediate results, and recreate the line of reasoning.

Barge Tutorial Sample Analyses • 68

The main steps taken in this exercise were:
• Defined the initial (pre-incident) condition
• Defined two possible versions of the current (as damaged) condition.
• Defined the “boundaries” of the situation at hand by immediately looking at the condition of the
barge at the ensuing high and low tides.
• Reviewed the oil outflow at low tide.
• Developed an oil transfer plan based on the resources available.
• Revised the definition of the grounding based on the latest information taken when low tide
occurred.
• Concluded that the oil transfer alone would not be enough to float the barge free at the second
high tide.
• Verified that by using the pressurization equipment obtained by the owners as back up to
pressurize the flooded machinery space, the barge would float free even before the second high
tide.

Barge Tutorial Sample Analyses • 69

Defining Structural Sections
Having created a complete model for stability and basic strength calculations, you can now use the
Section Modulus Editor to create a detailed structural model of the barge. This model will enable the
calculation of section properties (shear area, moments of inertia, section moduli, etc.), the simulation of
local damage (as in a punctured side shell) and the effects of corrosion on general plate thickness and
resulting loss of strength.
Structural sections are stored in an *.SMD file. For a typical ship, you might create three to five sections
(including Midship Section) along the length of the vessel. From these, you could interpolate values for
sections of the hull in between. While you will just create a single midship section for the sample barge, it
is still quite useful due to the fact that the parallel midbody covers such a large percentage of the barge’s
length.
The figure below shows the full specification for the sample barge’s midship section.

12.5mm PLATE TOP

1.5m SPC. TYP. 0.6m SPC. TYP.
450mm

100 x 7.8 F.B.

300 x 18.75 WEB
225 x 25 FLG DECK LONGL
100 x 75 x 7.8 L
450 x 18.75 WEB
300 x 25 FLG

SHELL & BHD LONGL 12.5mm

150 x 87.5 x 7.8 L PL SHELL

11mm PLATE 6m

600 x 18.75 WEB

225 x 25 FLG
BOTTOM LONGL
300 x 18.75 WEB
200 x 100 x 14 L
225 x 25 FLG

12.5mm
4.5m PL BILGE
12.5mm
PLATE BOTTOM
9m

Barge Tutorial Defining Structural Sections • 70

Refer to the user manual for further background and details on the data structure and user interface.
Basically, you will be building up the midship section by properly locating and dimensioning simple
structural elements such as plates, angles, Tee-sections, etc.
Start the Section Modulus Editor by selecting it within your Herbert-abs software suite.

Structural Project Properties

Define a new project and enter the basic particulars.
• Select File | New Section from the menu bar.
• You will be presented with a Project Properties window with entry fields for some basic data
related to the Project. Much of this is purely informational. For the purpose of this exercise simply
fill in the fields as follows.

Project Properties

• Click on the Apply button.

• You have just initiated a new section file, with details of the location of the section (i.e. 0.0 m from
Midship) and the principal particulars of the barge. The section at the bottom of the above window
relates to how the “extreme fibers” are defined in order to calculate global section properties. It
also displays what the extreme fiber distances are. In this case, you will leave the “Extreme Fiber
distances” button as selected which, once some structure is defined, will be derived from that
definition.
• Again, the task of defining a section comes down very simply to defining a list of structural
elements along with their cross sectional properties (dimension, location, and material type).
Once you complete the step above you will be presented with an empty table which you can use
to start defining elements (see below). If you don’t see it go to Edit | Section within the menu bar.

Barge Tutorial Defining Structural Sections • 71

 Defining elements

• For example, you could start by simply laying down a keel plate. In this case, you would select a
Horizontal Plate from the Type drop down list. You would then give it a thickness (tw/tp), a
breadth of the plate (hw/bp) and a location of the plate’s origin (X Loc and Y Loc). Note that not
all of the columns are necessary to define a horizontal plate (for example, tf refers to the
thickness of the flange element in a Tee or Angle section which of course is not applicable to a
horizontal plate.)
• However, before you start defining the various elements in this manner, you will take advantage
of a tool that allows you to automatically generate the outer shell plating based on the hull
definition.

Automatically generate the outer shell plating.

• Select File | Load Ship (*.sh2) file from the main menu and use the Read Ship Project File
window to locate and Open your sample barge’s SH2 file.
• You will be presented with a Generate Section from Ship window with a few basic entry fields
available to determine how the section will be generated. Essentially, this feature will take the
molded shape of the hull based on the offsets you have previously defined, and at a certain
location along the length (in this case, you would want it at the amidships location, or 0.0m from
MS) it will automatically generate a series of plate elements of a given thickness all the way
around the hull. Referring to the Structural Section definition, you can see that the plate thickness
all the way around the outer shell is 12.5mm. Fill in the Generate Section from Ship window
accordingly the screenshot below.

Generating section from ship

• Make sure that Create New Section is selected, and click on the Generate button.
• You will now see that in addition to the original Section Editor table (which now has four plate
elements in it) you also see a Section View window, and an individual element viewing window
which displays information related to the “active” or selected element.

Barge Tutorial Defining Structural Sections • 72

 Section View Window

• Note in the Section View window that only the starboard side of the plating has been defined
(also note that both the vertical and horizontal neutral axes have been drawn based on the
structure defined so far). There is a facility for mirroring elements to the port side once all of the
starboard side has been more fully defined. This will be explained towards the end of this section.

If your main window does not appear to be the same as the above, try selecting Window | Layout
– 1 from the main menu.

Save your work

• Every time you save your work the Project Properties dialogue (see step 1) pops up. For this
tutorial it is enough to check if the previous made settings are unchanged. Click Cancel if it still
looks like the picture under step 1.
• Since this is the first time you are saving this file, you will be now prompted to give a file name.
Use “XBarge MS.smd” as a file name.

Before you continue on to define individual structural elements, a brief discussion of how the elements
are located and oriented is given here. As always, refer to the user manual for more details.The following
is an excerpt from the manual that introduces the concept of a Local Reference Point.
A key feature of this program, and one which greatly enhances its utility, is the use of a local reference
point (LRP) for each element. Commonly, the complete section properties of a section are built up by
summing the areas and moments of area for each contributing part. This requires knowing the center of
area for each part. For many parts, such as a 6 x 4 x 1/2 inch Tee attached to the shell plating oriented at
30 degrees from vertical, this is awkward to calculate. What is often known more precisely however is the
location of the attachment point of the Tee to the shell, e.g. the centerline at the base of the web.
In the Section Modulus Editor, each element type has a set of local reference points (LRPs), from 0 up to
8 in some cases, representing the potential attachment points for that section. In data entry one can
specify whichever point is most convenient for the user to determine. By default, the center of area LRP =
0, is assumed, and in general, LRP = 1 is chosen to be the most likely attachment point for the specific
element type.
The figure below represents an example of the local reference point for a Tee section.

Barge Tutorial Defining Structural Sections • 73

Note the numbered LRPs. For any given Tee section, if you designate “1” as the local reference point,
then the point at the base and centerline of the Web (pointed to with the red arrow above) will be placed
exactly at the global coordinates (X Loc, Y Loc) that you define, and then rotated about that point by the
angle, θ (theta). In this way, it eases the task of placing elements within the section, and allows the
accurate calculation of the centers of area for each element.
As another brief example, look at the first element in the table that was automatically generated from the
hull:

Hull Plate Entry

This element (which was given the name “Hull-1”) is a horizontal plate and the local reference point is
designated as “2” (see the column heading Ref. Point). The LRP’s for a plate are defined in the figure
below.

Barge Tutorial Defining Structural Sections • 74

Note that LRP #2 is not on the centerline, but rather on the edge of the plate. By using LRP #2, the
program was able to position the plate using a global location of (0,0) while the actual thickness of the
plate extended to the outside of the molded hull form. Note also the use of the angle, θ (theta). This is
shown in the figure below:

90o

Molded BL (0,0)

Bottom Plate

Before you start adding individual longitudinal stiffeners to the section, note that while the outer plating
was very efficiently generated using the hull shape that you had already defined, there was no way to
similarly generate the internal plating. In this case, there is a longitudinal bulkhead at 4.5m from
centerline. You will start by adding this simple plate to the section.

Note the defined coordinate system. Section Modulus Editor is a two-dimensional table based
tool, which uses a standard cartesian coordinate system, based in the intersection of center- and
baseline, with positive direction to the top and right.

Configuring Structural Elements

Use the Section Editor to define the longitudinal bulkhead plating.
• In the next empty row in the Section Editor, select Vertical Plate from the drop down menu in the
Type column. A new element will be created with a default angle of 0o (i.e. vertical according to
the schematic definition of a simple plate).
• In the Name field, input “Long Bkhd” (for Longitudinal Bulkhead). The Description field is optional,
but can be useful in quickly identifying what type of element you are dealing with. Enter “Bkhd
Plate” in the Description field.
• Referring to the Amidships section definition, note that the longitudinal bulkhead is 11 mm thick,
and extends from the baseline at 4.5 m from centerline (X Loc = 450 cm, Y Loc = 0.0 cm) to the
underside of the deck. Since you have already defined this element as a vertical plate (angle =
0o) the only items remaining are to set the local reference point and get the “height” of the plate
correct so that it butts up against the underside of the decking. The height is simply the depth of
the barge, or 6.0m. For the purposes of this exercise, we will assume that for internal plating, the
LRP will be “on center”. In other words, in locating a plate’s distance from a given global
reference point, you will use the local centerline of the plate as the measuring point. As can be
seen from the schematic definition of a plate, this corresponds to using and LRP = 1.
• To summarize, input (or confirm) the following values:

Type: “V”
Name: “Long Bkhd”
Description: “Bkhd Plate”

Barge Tutorial Defining Structural Sections • 75

 tw / tp (plate thickness): 11 mm
hw / bp (plate breadth): 6,000 mm
Angle: 0 deg
X Loc, Y Loc: 450cm, 0.0 cm
Ref. Point: 1
Material: (Leave as “Mild Steel”
for now)

• When you have finished the definition, you should have the following. Note that as you add
structure to the section, the element and section properties are recalculated and displayed.

Hull Plating

Now you are ready to add some of the longitudinal stiffeners to the outer shell. You will start with the Tee
section attached to the keel plate.

Add a Tee section to the bottom plate

While all structural elements in your section could be defined in the Section Editor window, the
program provides you with a custom editing window for each element type (plates, angles, bulbs,
etc). As you will see in this step, it is easier to use these custom element windows because the
columns are set up specifically for each element type. This is especially true with more
complicated element types.

• Select Edit | Tees from the main menu. The Tees Editor will appear and you will see that the
columns available for input are specific to defining a Tee section.

Barge Tutorial Defining Structural Sections • 76

 • In the Name field, input “BT-1” (for Bottom Tee #1). You can call the element anything you want
as long as it uniquely identifies the element. “BT-1” is short and descriptive. The Description field
is optional, but can be useful in quickly identifying what type of element you are dealing with.
Enter “Bottom Tee” in the Description field.
• Referring to the Midship section definition, enter the dimensions of the large Tee section attached
to the keel plating. The main dimensions are the web thickness, web “height”, flange thickness,
flange “breadth”. Also required to fully define the location and orientation of the Tee section within
the barge section are the global coordinates (X Loc and Y Loc) the local reference point, and the
angle of inclination.

Name “BT-1”
Description “Bottom Tee”
Web-T 18.75 mm
Web-H 600 mm
Flange-T 25.0 mm
Flange-B 225.0 mm
Angle 0 deg
X Loc, Y Loc 0.0 cm, 0.0 cm
Ref. Point 1
Material (Leave as “Mild Steel” for
now)

• When you are finished you can close the Tees Editor window. The first line in the Tees Editor
window should be as shown below. Notice that your newly created BT-1 element has been added
to the list of elements in the main Section Editor table, along with the dimensions that you defined
and corresponding calculated properties. The Section Editor table shows all elements regardless
of type, and again, you could have simply entered this data directly, rather than opening the
specific Tees Editor window.

Tees Editor

• You can also see the new Tee element in the Section View (along with all other elements defined
so far) and the individual element or Part View as shown below. Note, the tee element will not be
this size on the actual screen because it is so small relative to everything else. You will need to
zoom in to see the following picture displayed below.

Barge Tutorial Defining Structural Sections • 77

 Part View, Tee Element

• Note also the reference point (“1”) and angle (“0”) that were used. The default local reference
point for a Tee section (i.e. the most likely point of attachment to the plating) is set at 1, which as
discussed before represents the local centerline and base of the tee section. For the Tee section
just created, this is the ideal reference point, as you can simply place the Tee at the global origin
of the section (i.e. at 0,0, the baseline and centerline of the section), and the Tee section will line
up perfectly with the centerline and will be attached to the inside face of the bottom plating.
• Referring again to the schematic definition of a Tee section, you can see that an angle of 0o will
result in the Tee being aligned standing straight “up”.

Save your work

You will now continue with adding the next Tee section which is attached to the bottom plate at 1.5m from
centerline.

Add the next Tee section to the bottom plate

• Select Edit | Tees again from the main menu.
• Referring to the Midship section definition, input the data for this second Tee as follows:

Name “BT-2”
Description “Bottom Tee”
Web-T 18.75 mm
Web-H 300 mm
Flange-T 25.0 mm
Flange-B 225.0 mm
Angle 0 deg
X Loc, Y Loc 150cm, 0.0 cm

Barge Tutorial Defining Structural Sections • 78

 Ref. Point 1
Material (Leave as “Mild Steel” for
now)

• You should now see your second Tee section attached to the bottom plating.

In the Section View, you can “zoom in” on any particular element or groups of elements. Using
the “Zoom Window” tool button , click and drag to describe a small rectangle around the two
Tee sections.

Section View with Tees

• Click the “Zoom All” tool button, to return to the overall view of the section.

As with most ships, the sample barge has numerous structural elements that have identical dimensions.
The Section Modulus Editor has a number of tools to efficiently generate copies of elements where only
the location has to be redefined. You will take advantage of one of these tools in the definition of the third
Tee section along the bottom plating at 3.0 m from centerline, which has identical dimensions to the
element BT-2 that you have already defined.

Make a copy of BT-2 to create BT-3

• Within the Section Editor window, right-click anywhere in the row for the BT-2 Tee section, and
select Duplicate Part(s).
• A new row will be automatically added to the Section Editor table named “BT-2 (c)”. Rename this
element to “BT-3”, and change the X Loc from 150cm to 300cm. You should now see your third
Tee section attached to the bottom plating. Again, you may need to zoom in to see the image as
clearly as below.

Barge Tutorial Defining Structural Sections • 79

 Section Editor

You will now turn your attention to the Angle stiffeners attached to the longitudinal bulkhead plating. Note
that these are nine identical stiffeners spaced evenly along the height of the bulkhead plating at 0.6m
apart.

Create a set of nine angle stiffeners attached to the longitudinal bulkhead

• Select Edit | Angles from the main menu.
• Input the following parameters to define the lowest angle stiffener on the longitudinal bulkhead:

Name “LBA” (Long. Bulkhead Angle. You

don’t need to specify a number
yet)
Description “Long Bhd Angle”
Web-T 7.8 mm
Web-H 150 mm
Flange-T 7.8 mm
Flange-B 87.5 mm
Angle 90 deg
X Loc, Y Loc 450.55 cm, 60.0 cm
Ref. Point 2
Material (Leave as “Mild Steel” for now)

• You should see the new angle attached appropriately. Note in particular the X Loc of 450.55cm.
The additional 0.55cm was necessary to account for the thickness (or half-thickness) of the
longitudinal bulkhead plating. An X Loc of 450cm would have set the attachment point in the
middle of the plating rather than on the face of the plating as required. See the figures on the left
hand side.

Barge Tutorial Defining Structural Sections • 80

 Attaching Stiffeners

Multiple Part Generator

• In the Section Editor window, right-click on the newly created LBA element and select Add Part |
Create Multiple.
• You will be presented with a Multiple Part Generator window in which you can specify the number
of identical parts you want to create, the spacing, and the length (in a straight line) over which
these parts are to be spread. Fill in the window: With spacing selected “0.6”, From “(4.506, 0.6)”,
To “(4.506, 6.0)”.
• Click Generate
• Based on the original “prototype” angle you have now generated all nine angles at appropriately
spaced intervals along the longitudinal bulkhead.

Generated Angles

• You will now take advantage of another powerful tool to create the angles that are attached to the
side shell, but are essentially the same dimensions as the longitudinal bulkhead angles you just

Barge Tutorial Defining Structural Sections • 81

 created. You could perform this next step in a number of different ways, but the “Attach” tool is
used in this example.

Create a set of nine angle stiffeners attached to the side shell.

• Instead of following the same steps as above, select all nine “LBA” elements from the Section
Editor table.

You can select multiple elements either by clicking on the first row with the left mouse button and
dragging down to select a range, or you can hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and
individually click on each element that you want with the left mouse button, or you can hold down
the Shift key on your keyboard to select a series of items.

• With those nine angles selected, use the right mouse button to click on one of the selected rows
and select Duplicate Part(s):
• You will see that all nine angles are reproduced and given a name with a “(c)” appended to it.
• Change the Description column for all nine of the newly duplicated angles from “Long Bhd Angle”
to “Side Shell Angle”. You can do all nine at once simply by selecting the range in the Description
column (by clicking and dragging the mouse) and typing “Side Shell Angle” once.
• Similarly (although you have to do them one at a time) change the Name column to reflect that
these angles are attached to the Side Shell. For example, change LBA – 1 (c) to “SSA – 1”.
• With all nine side shell angles still selected, right-click in the Section Editor and select Attach –
Right.
• You will see that the set of nine duplicate angles are now attached to the face of the plating to the
right of the longitudinal bulkhead (in this case, the side shell plating is to the right of the
longitudinal bulkhead). The Attach – Right feature has logically placed the stiffeners at right
angles to the side shell plating and has additionally oriented the angle so the flange extends
downward.

Creating angle stiffeners

Barge Tutorial Defining Structural Sections • 82

 Attach – Right feature

• This is exactly the way it should be, except for the bottom-most stiffener, SSA - 1 (see red arrow).
Since this element was attached at the junction between two plates (i.e. the side shell and the
radius plating), the program was unable to determine how to orient the stiffener. You can fix this
in the next step.

Re-orient the lowest stiffener on the side shell plating.

• Reorienting the stiffener is a simple matter of changing the angle. In the Section Editor, change
the angle of SSA –1 from “89” deg to “–90” deg.

Note that the sign of the angle is important in order to know which way the flange is facing. An
angle of 270 deg would orient the Web of the stiffener in the same direction as an angle of –90
deg, but the flange would be facing upward instead of downward.

Angle = -90 Correct Angle = 270 Incorrect

Save your work

Complete the half-section geometry definition.

• You now have all the tools and techniques available to complete the half-section definition.
• Once you have added the Tee stiffeners and angles to the deck plating and the remaining angle
stiffeners to the bottom plating, your section should look as follows.

Barge Tutorial Defining Structural Sections • 83

 Completed Half-Section

• For your reference the remaining elements that were added to complete the section are specified
below.

Added Section Elements

Barge Tutorial Defining Structural Sections • 84

Although it is not specified in the Sample Barge Definition, the material properties of each individual
element may be set using the Section Modulus Editor. In the next step you will change the material for all
elements from “mild steel” to “AH-32 Steel”.

Set the material properties of the sections structure

• In the Section Editor window, click on the “Material” column heading. This should select the entire
column.
• In the first row of the table, click on the drop down menu in the Material column, and select “AH-
32 Steel”. This will change your entire barge section from a mild steel construction to one using
AH-32 grade steel.

You are now in a position to check all of the work you have done so far. By selecting View | Section
Properties from the main menu, you will see a comprehensive report detailing the section properties as
calculated from the section that you have defined. Check your answers against the following table.

Section Properties

Note that columns are included for “Corroded” and “Damaged” sections. Later in the tutorial, you will
define some damage for the structure which will lead to a recalculation of the section properties. In the
meantime, since you have not defined any damaged or corroded regions, the section properties should
be identical in all three columns.
If your results are significantly different from above there are a few things you can check:
• Make sure you are neither missing any elements nor, have any extras defined in your section. In
looking at the Section Editor table, you should have exactly 42 elements (including shell plating).
• Make sure that you have changed the material properties of ALL elements from “mild steel” to
“AH-32 steel”.

Barge Tutorial Defining Structural Sections • 85

If your results are only very slightly different, the problem might be more difficult to find, and may require
an element-by-element check of all dimensions, locations, and Local Reference Points. However at some
point, a very small difference might not merit such a detailed check.
There is one more task to perform, and that is to complete the other side of the section. Once again, the
Section Modulus Editor provides a tool for saving the extra work of copying, relocating, and reorienting
structure that you have already defined.

Create the Port side of the section

• Select Tools | Mirror Section from the main menu. This will take every element that is not located
on the centerline, and create a mirror image on the port side. You should now see the following
full section:

Full Section After Mirror

Note that this “mirroring” action can be undone. Every mirrored part has the same name as the
original with an “(m)” appended to it. If, for example, you needed to make significant adjustments
to the section, you could simply take the following steps: Select Tools | Delete Mirrored Part(s)
from the main menu, make your changes to just the starboard side, and Mirror your half-section
again when the changes are complete.

Save your work

Summary
You have now completed the definition of the sample barge midship section. While this is a very simple
section, the main features of the program have been covered, and the tools and techniques could be
applied to any structural section.
Some of the more advanced features that were not covered, but nevertheless you should be aware of
are:
• The use of standard stiffener libraries
• Generating a “simplified section” using known section properties and “effective” plate breadths.
Refer to the user manual for more details.

Barge Tutorial Defining Structural Sections • 86

Glossary of Terms

Barge Tutorial Glossary of Terms • 87

 The active object in the project. Edit the active object by selecting Edit Active Object in the View
Active Node menu.

Aft Perpendicular
AP

A flat bottomed, shallow draft vessel

Barge

XZ plane of the ship located at the baseline (Y=0).

BL

Plate used to rigidly connect 2 or more intersecting structural members

Bracket

Curves of Immersed cross sectional area plotted against the vessel’s draft
Bonjean Curves

Term applied to vertical partition walls subdividing the interior of a vessel into compartments
Bulkhead

Block Coefficient
Cb

A sharp angle in the hull. An angle with little rounding

Chine

XY plane of the ship at located on the centerline (Z=0)

CL

Enclosed space usually with watertight bulkheads, doors or hatches

Compartment
Pop-up menu that appears at the cursor location by clicking the right mouse button. Menu
contains options to efficiently perform operations related to the currently selected window or item in
Context Menu a window.
Deadweight is made up of fuel oil and the owners requirement for cargo, plus miscellaneous items
Deadweight including fresh water, stores, passengers, crew, and their effects.

All inclusive mass or weight of vessel measured in tones and equal to the mass of water displaced
Displacement

Depth to which the hull is immersed

Draft
Ship Project Explorer window used to explore the data in a ship project. Opened and updated
Explorer using the options in the View menu.

Table of which transverse frames are located, indicated on the baseline, numbered from zero at
Frame Table the aft perpendicular and terminating at or beyond the forward perpendicular.
The window or control on a window that has the program focus. This is often indicated by a
highlight or dotted outline on a button. Context menus apply specifically to the item that has the
Focus focus.

Forward Perpendicular
FP
The surface of a liquid in a tank is considered free if the tank is not completely full or empty. If the
vessel has trim or heel a tank with a free surface will experience a shift in its contents center of
Free Surface gravity. This effect is important in assessing stability.

Inclination of a vessel to one side

Heel

Barge Tutorial Glossary of Terms • 88

 The main body or primary part providing global strength, buoyancy and hydrodynamic qualities of a
Hull vessel

Calculate loading condition from geometric data. Hull properties calculated from the hull offsets.
Intact Direct Tank centers and free surface calculated from offsets if available.

Calculate ship loading condition characteristics from hydrostatic and other tables. Tank centers
Intact and free surface calculated from entered tank loads or tank tables if available.

The vessel condition without any form of deadweight aboard (including fuel and ballast)
Lightship

Length Between Perpendiculars

LBP

Longitudinal Center of Buoyancy

LCB

Longitudinal Center of Gravity (X axis)

LCG

Length Overall.
LOA

Term covering main engines, auxiliary engine room machinery in addition to other installed plant
Machinery

Amidships
MS
Dimensional co-ordinates of a hull form,(referenced to the moulded baseline) usually presented in
Offsets tabular format

Pertaining to the left- hand side of a vessel in the Profile view of the vessel
Port (Side)
Centerline fin form continuation of the lower afterbody integrated into the hull primarily for
Skeg directional stability and for support in dry drock.

Pertaining to the right hand side of a vessel in the Profile view of the vessel
Starboard (Side)

Transverse Center of Gravity (Z axis)

TCG

The longitudinal attitude of a vessel, the difference between forward and aft drafts
Trim

Vertical Center of Gravity (Y axis)

VCG

Enclosed space intentionally left empty

Void Space
Transverse side frame with deeper web, spaced at multiples of mean frame stations for the
Web Frame provision of extra strength

Barge Tutorial Glossary of Terms • 89

Appendix: Sample Barge
Definition
Particulars

Length Overall 60.00 Meters

Length Between Perpendiculars 60.00 Meters
Breadth, Molded 18.00 Meters
Depth, Molded 6.00 Meters
Design Draft 4.60 Meters
Design Speed 6.00 Knots

Strength Stations

FRAME LOCATION
No. (m-AP)
F05 3.00 F
F20 12.00 F
F38 22.80 F
F56 33.60 F
F74 44.40 F
F90 54.00 F

Barge Tutorial Appendix: Sample Barge Definition • 90

Hull Definition

1.5m
3m
6m
2.55

0.3m
12m 6m
42m

60m

6m 6m 6m 6m 6m 6m 6m 6m 3m 3m 3m 3m

18m

1.2m

0.6m 10.2m

6, 9 6, 0 6, 9
5.7, 9

4.5, 7.8
4.5, 0
3.6, 9
3.174, 8.826 3.15, 9
3, 8.4 3, 0
2.25, 8.1
2.1, 9
2.25, 0
1.674, 8.826
1.5, 8.4 1.5, 0
0.6, 9 0.6, 9
0.174, 8.826 0.174, 8.826
0, 8.4 0, 0 0, 8.4

(HEIGHT, HALF BREADTH GIVEN IN METERS)

Barge Tutorial Appendix: Sample Barge Definition • 91

Skeg Properties

Skeg Volumes And Centers Of Gravity

Volume (molded) 11 m3 (each skeg)

LCG 1.279 m
VCG 4.002 m-AP
TCG 8.031 m P/S

Skeg Offsets

(HEIGHT, HALF BREADTH GIVEN IN METERS)

2.85, 7.2 2.85, 8.4

0.303, 7.95 0.303, 8.4

0.3, 7.95 0.3, 8.4
0.3, 7.95 0.3, 8.4

Skeg offsets

Barge Tutorial Appendix: Sample Barge Definition • 92

General Arrangement

2.4

AP F05 F20 F38 F56 F74 F90 FP

9.0
3.0 1.5 7.5 10.8 10.8 10.8 9.6 6.0

4.5

9.0
5.4
1.5
4.5

Barge Tutorial Appendix: Sample Barge Definition • 93

Lightship

Lightship Weight 1,428.0 MT

Lightship VCG 2.40 m-BL
Lightship LCG 27.7838 m-AP
Lightship TCG 0.00 m-CL

Lightship Weight Ordinates

LOCATION ORDINATE
(m-AP) (MT/m)
0.000 16.5
3.000F 23.5
3.000F 35.7
12.000F 32.3
12.000F 23.0
54.000F 23.0
60.000F 9.0

Lightship Weight Blocks

WEIGHT LCG AFT BOUND FWD BOUND
(MT) (m-AP) (m-AP) (m-AP)
60.0 1.5875F 0.000 3.000F
306.0 7.425F 3.000F 12.000F
966.0 33.000F 12.000F 54.000F
96.0 56.5625F 54.000F 60.000F

Barge Tutorial Appendix: Sample Barge Definition • 94

Structural Section

12.5mm PLATE TOP

1.5m SPC. TYP. 0.6m SPC. TYP.
450mm

100 x 7.8 F.B.

300 x 18.75 WEB
225 x 25 FLG DECK LONGL
100 x 75 x 7.8 L
450 x 18.75 WEB
300 x 25 FLG

SHELL & BHD LONGL 12.5mm

150 x 87.5 x 7.8 L PL SHELL

11mm PLATE 6m

0.6m SPC. TYP.

600 x 18.75 WEB

225 x 25 FLG
BOTTOM LONGL
300 x 18.75 WEB 200 x 100 x 14 L
225 x 25 FLG

12.5mm
4.5m PL BILGE
12.5mm
PLATE BOTTOM
9m

Barge Tutorial • 95