Squat in muddy navigation areas

Based on experiments with captive and self-propelled ship models, a description of the phenomena that dominate the ship’s squat in muddy areas is given. It can be concluded that the average sinkage of a vessel navigating in muddy channels is generally reduced by the presence of mud layers, but the dynamic trim is affected significantly by the generation of interface undulations. For ships navigating above mud layers, the maximum sinkage is comparable to or slightly less than the values occurring if the mud layer were replaced by a solid bottom. Compared to the situation in which the mud layer is not present, however, the muddy bottom interface always increases the maximum sinkage, even in case of contact with the mud layer