Journal Paper

Application of Advanced System Identification Technique to Extract Roll Damping from Model Tests in Order to Accurately Predict Roll Motions

Abhilash Somayajula and Jeffrey Falzarano

Abstract

In this paper our previously developed advanced system identification technique (Somayajula and Falzarano 2016) has been applied to extract the frequency dependent roll damping from a series of model tests run in irregular (random) waves. It is shown that this methodology accurately models the roll damping which can then be used to produce accurate predictions of the ship’s roll motion. These roll motion predictions are not only more accurate than the potential flow predictions but more accurate than potential flow models corrected using either empirical prediction methods (Falzarano et. al. 2015) and even those corrected using roll damping obtained from free decay sallying experiments. This methodology has the potential to significantly improve roll motion prediction during full scale at sea trails of vessels in order to dramatically improve safety of critical operations such as helicopter landing or ship to ship cargo transfer.

Keywords: Reverse-Multiple Input Single Output; Roll damping; System identification; Partial coherence; Conditional Spectra; R/V Melville; Environmental ship motion forecasting;

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