Bank effect and operation of inland waterways vessels

Key words: inland waterways shipping, bank effect, ship manoeuvrability, training in ship handling Inland waterways vessels operate in waters of restricted depth and restricted width with cross-section of the waterway of different profile. These conditions affect hydrodynamic forces acting on the vessel and in consequence they affect their operation. There are several hydrodynamic effects present in inland waterways. Restricted depth and cross-section of the canal or river affects resistance of the vessel and hydrodynamic characteristics of the propeller and in consequence propulsive efficiency. Another effect is caused by modifi-cation of pressure distribution around vessel body resulting in change of draft, so called squat. Finally in nar-row fairway lateral forces on the vessel are created and in case of non-symmetrical position of the vessel, those forces are also non-symmetric and causing that the vessel is pushed to one side. This affects safe han-dling of the vessel and requires understanding and skill of operator. This problem is discussed in the paper