Synthesis Model for the Conceptual Design of Inland Cargo Vessels to Operate on the Magdalena River

Abstract

Inland waterways are presented both as a need and an opportunity for developing an intermodal transport system to boost Colombian economic growth. Riverine transportation as part of an intermodal system represents conveying a significant amount of cargo at a low cost and therefore reducing greenhouse gas emissions. To competitively include this cargo transportation alternative in an intermodal context, the development of effective container vessels is required. Most of the Colombian rivers present sedimentary, high flow, and low depth nature. Then, the design of riverine cargo vessels capable of navigating in shallow waters with less brake power requirements is needed. A synthesis model: an automatic and integrated design procedure, has been programmed to generate and evaluate feasible vessel dimensions at a conceptual design stage. Through systematic variations of the main dimensions, this procedure allows evaluating a design space in which the most effective concept-vessel solution is selected. At the end of this procedure, the main characteristics for container vessels in the Magdalena River at a conceptual design stage, are defined. Validation of the synthesis model with a riverine logistic support ship is provided.

Re-examination of centre of buoyancy curve and its evolute for rectangular cross section, Part 2: Using quadratic functions

“…Today, the modern theory about it is set in the bifurcation/catastrophe/singularity theory by Thom, [16], Zeeman, [16], Poston and Stewart, [18], and Arnold, [19], as a part of singularity theory, and control theory also. Recently, theoretical aspects of metacentric curve role in the evaluation of ship's stability are examined in the works of Mégel and Kliava, [20], Spyrou, [21], and many others, with the need for analytical examination of it for two-dimensional and three-dimensional problems for regular cross section shapes and bodies, like in recent quadratic approximation of centre of buoyancy curve for trapezoidal and pentagonal cross section in the work of Smirnov and Khashba, [22], or practical applications for general ship geometry and hydrostatics determination like in, [23], [24] and [25]. In general, regarding ship stability calculations, the goal is observing centre of buoyancy B-curve and its evolute M-curve for heel angles  range from 0°to 90°.…”

Inland waterway cargo vessel energy efficiency in operation

“…The research stated that the effect of shallow water on energy efficiency of studied IWV is significant, and varied between 19.30% and 21.10%, on average. Other efforts to include energy efficiency in inland navigation has been more directed towards the hydrodynamically optimised design for the particular river with respect to the high flow and low depth constraints, as presented in [26] for Magdalena river in Colombia. To conclude, an average age of IWV on Danube is much larger than in case of sea-going ships.…”