3D Simulation of Ship Motions to Support the Planning of Rescue Operations on Damaged Ships

AbstractThe paper describes a software system to simulate the ship motions in a crisis situation. The scenario consists of a damaged ship subjected to wave excitation forces generated by a random sea state. The simulation is displayed in an interactive Virtual Environment allowing the visualization of the ship motions. The numerical simulation of the sea surface and ship motions requires intensive computation to maintain the real-time or even the fast-forward simulations, which are the only ones of interest for these situations. Dedicated tools to analyse the ship behaviour in time are also described. The system can be useful to evaluate the responses of the ship to the current sea state, namely the amplitude, variations and tendencies of ship motions, and help the planning and coordination of rescue operations