Simple Stability

Here, a basic stability analysis is performed. Important basic concepts of the program are
introduced while only minimal computations are performed. Although the topics discussed here
are basic, the concepts that are introduced are fundamental for any analysis.

Most of our examples contain a common set of "beginning" commands as well as a common
"ending" command. Click here to get documentation for these commands. They will not be
discussed directly. The files which are discussed here are:

 bstab data
 bstab commands
 bstab log
 bstab output

There are four major parts to the analysis:

 Read in the vessel model

 Put the vessel in the desired condition (draft, roll and trim)
 Define the weight and weight distribution properties, and
 Compute the righting arms and wind arms

Here is the text for the file bstab.cif.:

$
$@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
$@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
$@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
$
$ Sample Problem Showing - Basic Stablity
$
$@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
$@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
$@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
$
$
$********************************************* set basic parameters
$
&DIMEN -DIMEN FEET KIPS
&TITLE Step 1 - Basic Stability
$
$********************************************* READ MODEL
$
INMODEL
$
$********************************************* set transit condition
$
&INSTATE -CONDITION 7
$
 $********************************************* compute weight for
cond.
$
&WEIGHT -COMPUTE 5 32 85 85
&STATUS B_W
$
$********************************************* enter hydrostatic menu
$
HSTATICS
$
$********************************************* stability trans.
$
RARM 2.5 10 -WIND 100
REPORT
END
END
$
$********************************************* all done
$
FINISH

The first 11 lines are comment lines. Anything after a $ is ignored. These comment lines explain
that the file is intended to perform a stability analysis.

The first two real commands are preceded by the comment that states they are "basic
parameters". These two commands are important because they define the dimensions which are
used to communicate with the program and the title of the analysis. This title will be in each page
of output.

The command:

INMODEL
instructs the program to read in the data file. In this case the data file is bstab.dat. In this step, the
data file is one line long:
USE_VES CBRG180
This line simply tells the program to use barge "CBRG180" from the barge vessel library. Notice
that here, you do not need the extention .dat, the root of the file CBRG180 is all that is needed.
(For details, click here.)

After the vessel description has been read the desired condition of draft, trim and heel for the
vessel needs to be defined. The vessel condition is set with the command:

&INSTATE -CONDITION 7 0 0
The three numbers at the end of the command signify the draft, the roll, and the trim. For this
analysis the draft has been set to 7, the roll and trim are set to 0. (For details, click here.) Once
the vessel has been placed at the desired condition the necessary weight and radii of gyration to
keep it at that condition are calculated. The weight, vertical center of gravity (VCG), and the
radii of gyration are set with the command:
&WEIGHT -COMPUTE 5 32 85 85
This instructs MOSES to compute the weight needed to achieve equilibrium with the computed
weight having the specified VCG = 5, KXX = 32, KYY = 85, and KZZ = 85. For stability, you
do not need the correct radii of gyration, but they will be important in later steps. (For details,
click here.)

The command:

&STATUS B_W
instructs the program to report the current status of the buoyancy and weight. Having defined the
condition and the weight of the vessel we can now proceed to perform specialized calculations.
(For details, click here.)

In MOSES we have the concept of menus. In each menu a specific part of the analysis can be
performed. You always begin in the Main menu. From there, there are several levels of menus.
The function of the menus can be determined from the menu name, for example here we are
interested in hydrostatics, so we issue the command:

HSTATIC
to enter the HYDROSTATICS menu.

Within the hydrostatics menu, righting arm calculations are performed using the command:

RARM 2.5 10 -WIND 100

This particular command will result in righting arm calculations being done every 2.5 degrees
from the current position for a total of 10 calculations. The option -WIND will perform the wind
heeling calculations with a wind of 100 knots. (For details, click here.)

At the end of the calculations the program will automatically place the user in the Disposition
menu. You will find yourself in this menu many times when using MOSES. You can do many
things with the results you have just created. (For details, click here.) Here, however, we will
simply print them to the output file with the command:

REPORT
The first END then exits the Disposition menu and the second END exits the HYDROSTATICS
menu. When you exit the HYDROSTATICS menu, you return to the MOSES Main menu.

The last command:

&FINISH.
finishes the analysis.

Now, we have a model defined in the file bstab.dat and a set of things for MOSES to do with the
model defined in the file bstab.cif. To get MOSES to interact with this information, you simply
issue the command:

moses bstab
This will create a directory bstab.ans. Inside this directory will be several files with different
suffixes. (i.e. the three characters after the "." will be different.) Of these files, the two which are
normally of most interest are bstab.ans/log00001.txt and bstab.ans/out00001.txt. These two files
contain the results of the anlysis you have just performed. (For details, click here.)

The file bstab.ans/log00001.txt contains a command log. This is a record of each command
MOSES executed and any messages or reports you asked to be printed to the screen. You should
click here to look at the log. When viewing the log, you will see the message that the program
begins in the Main menu. The program echos the commands to the log file. The command
INMODEL is the first command where MOSES reports what it is doing. Notice that after
reading in the model, MOSES reports the time used. For many of the commands the program
will report the CP time required to accomplish the command. In most cases, this is printed to
give some input as the analysis progesses, and after a while, to give you some comparison as to
the size of this analysis versus others you have done.

Up to this point, the log has simply been a reports of what MOSES is doing. The command
&STATUS B_W is the first command where MOSES reports something specific to our analysis.
Here we find a table of the buoyancy and weight for CBRG180. This table summarizes the state,
or status, of the system from a hydrostatic perspective. At the top, the draft, roll and pitch
specified on the command &INSTATE are reported. The entry in the weight summary
"LOAD_GRO" is the results of the &WEIGHT command. The radii of gyration and the
metacentric heights are for the total system, not just that due to our computed weight.

The remainder of the log reports when the menu changes. When we enter the hydrostatics menu
MOSES reports:

+++ H Y D R O S T A T I C S +++
===============================
and when we enter the disposition menu MOSES reports:
+++ D I S P O S I T I O N +++
===============================
The remainder of the log is uneventful. It simply echos the commands, reports menu changes,
and at the end report the "exit status". The end report for this analysis states "MOSES Finished
Normally". In other words, it tells us that no errors were found and how much computer time
was used for the analysis.

Now we turn to the output file bstab.ans/out00001.txt. You should click here to look at the file.
(You may want to change the size of your browser window and/or font so that you can view the
whole width of the file.) Each page of the output has, in general, four parts: a "star box", a page
header, column titles, and a matrix of numbers. The first line on each page contains program
identification, and the next several contain information enclosed in "*"s. The program
identification tells the user which version of the program was used to generate the output. The
star box will always contain the date the output was generated, a title, and a subtitle. For our
analysis, we identifited the title as "Step 1 - Basic Stability". Since we did not define a subtitle,
one does not appear. The other contents of the star box may vary and will be discussed when the
contents change.

The rest of the page will vary depending on what is being reported. For this output, there are
three types of pages: the echo of the data input, the results of the righting arm calculations and
the index of the output. This file begins with an echo of the vessel data file. Notice that the echo
of the input data is much larger than the file bstab.dat. This is because we told MOSES to use a
vessel from the library. It is the definition of the vessel from the library which is being echoed. A
discussion of the commands used to define the library vessel will be presented later.

The second to last page is the report of the righting and heeling arms. Here, the header defines
the condition used to compute the righting arms.

+++ R I G H T I N G A R M R E S U L T S +++
===============================================

Process is DEFAULT: Units Are Degrees, Feet, and Kips Unless Specified

Moment Scaled By 3753.11, KG = 5.50, and Wind Speed = 100. Knots

Initial: Roll = 0.00, Trim = 0.00 Deg.

Arms About Axis Yawed 0.0 Deg From Vessel X

The report header contains the units being used, the weight of the vessel, the KG value, the wind
speed used, the inital roll and trim and the yaw axis. The weight and KG information are the
same as was reported with the &STATUS command. The KG is the value for the combined
lightship and the computed weight. Remember that with &WEIGHT we only defined the KG of
the weight being added, not the KG of the total weight. The initial roll and trim tells us that the
vessel was at an even keel when the roll increment of 2.5 was commenced. Below the header, we
have the righting arm results. There are ten columns of numbers, but not all columns will be
discussed in this step. The omitted columns will be discussed later. The first three columns are
draft, roll and pitch. For example, for a roll of 12.5 deg the output file shows a draft of 6.60, and
a pitch of .11. The table also reports the righting and heeling arm values for each roll increment.

For heeling arm calculations there are, in essence, four variables in the moment calculation:
displacement, wind velocity, the heel angle and the wind area. Of these four variables, we know
the program has a value for the displacement because it was listed in the buoyancy and weight
table. We also know the wind speed is 100 kts because it was echoed in the report heading. This
leaves the wind area as the only variable which could yield zero arm. Thus, we need to either
figure out how to ask the program to tell us what it thinks the wind area is, or we can look at the
model and determine if the wind area is there. In general the vessels in the vessel library do not
have wind areas, therefore we can conclude that our model does not have wind area.

The last page of the output contains the index of the output file. There are three entries: the echo
of the data file, the righting arms and the index itself. This, among other topics, will be discussed
in the next step.

Wind Areas and Ballasting

Here, we discuss more about wind areas than in the previous example. (Click here to review.) In
addition, we will do a more realistic job of defining the weight. Before, we simply asked that the
barge be in equilibrium at the desired draft. Here, we will ask the program to determine ballast to
achieve the same condition. It is also helpful for any analysis to have a plot of the vessel which is
being used, in this step some commands are added to view the model on the screen. Some
control of the output is also demonstrated in this step.

Most of our examples contain a common set of "beginning" commands as well as a common
"ending" command. Click here to get documentation for these commands. They will not be
discussed directly. The files which are discussed here are:

 wcomp data
 wcomp commands
 wcomp log
 wcomp output

The first basic change which was made was to add the three commands:

&PICTURE ISO
&PICTURE STARBOARD
&PICTURE TOP
after the &INSTATE command. This will produce three different views of the vessel model.
(For details, click here.) The final change made to the com file was to replace the &WEIGHT
command with the two commands:

&STATUS COMPARTM
&SELECT :ALL -SELECT @
&CMP_BAL CBRG180 :ALL
&STATUS B_W

The first of these tells the program to produce a report of the current status of the compartments.
In the log file you can see the results of this command. (For details, click here.) The second
command creates a selector with a name :ALL. Here the selector :ALL uses the wild card @.
The term wild card is defined as any value that can be used will be used. The command
&CMP_BAL tells the program to fill or empty the compartments until the vessel is in
equilibrium at the current condition, or until the number of iterations is exceeded. The required
data after the command is the body name (CBRG180) and the compartment names to be
ballasted. Here, we use the selector :ALL. Since the select :ALL used the wild card, all the tanks
will be used for ballast. After the program has finished calculating, it shows us the results in the
log file. (For details, click here.)

A comparision of the reports obtained with &STATUS B_W for this run and the previous one
show what has changed. The total displacement of the vessel is the same as before, 3753 Kips,
since we have not changed the shape of the vessel. Also, since we asked for equilibrium in the
same condition, the total weight did not change. The vertical center of gravity and the radii of
gyration are, however, are different. The effect of the differences in weight and center of gravity
will manifest themselves as differences in the righting arms.

Now let us turn to the wind problem. Here, we have changed the data file to define some wind
areas. In particular, we add the lines:

&set v_cur = 1
&set v_win = 1
Remember we are using the barge CBRG180 from the vessels library. By default no wind or
drag attractors are included in these models. By defining the two variables, v_cur and v_win, we
turn on the wind and drag attractors for the hull shape. You can read more about the vessel
library here.

The righting arm report in the output file also reflects these changes. Now that we have turned on
the wind attractor the heeling arm, wind arm, is no longer zero. Now let's turn to the remainder
of the report. Let us assume our task is to check the area ratio, at the "end of the curve", is larger
than 1.4. By "end of the curve", we mean when the vessel has lost effective stability. This loss of
stability can occur two ways: the heeling arm can be greater than the righting arm, or the vessel
can flood through a vent. The second zero of the net arm is when the vessel has lost stability due
to wind. Notice in the report that the net arm has a zero between a roll of 0 and 2.5 degrees, this
is the first intercept. The value does not change signs again, so we can conclude that the second
intercept does not occur between roll values of 2.5 and 22.5 degrees. Also, notice that the
minimum height of the downflooding points is always zero! We have a barge with no vents
which will never flood. From what we know now, we can not really pass judgement on stability
because 22.5 degrees is normally not a large enough range. To complete the analysis, we should
perform the analysis again and increase the total number of roll entries.

Better Ballasting
The scheme we chose in the previous analysis (Click here to review.) fills the compartments
indiscrimently. Because of free surface effects the ballast plan in the previous example will
probably be difficult to work with. In this example we will get a better ballast condition.

Most of our examples contain a common set of "beginning" commands as well as a common
"ending" command. Click here to get documentation for these commands. They will not be
discussed directly. The files which are discussed here are:

 pcomp data
 pcomp commands
 pcomp log
 pcomp output

There are two sets of changes made to the cif file. The first set are basically to add some steps in
the ballasting process. The commands are:

&status compartm
&select :outer -select @p @s
&cmp_bal cbrg180 :outer
&status
&compartment -percent @ 0 \
4p 100 1.0255 4s 100 1.0255 \
3p 100 1.0255 3s 100 1.0255 \
2p 15 1.0255 2s 15 1.0255 \
1p 100 1.0255 1s 100 1.0255
&status
&status compart
&equi
&STATUS B_W
The second set of changes to the cif file is to demonstrate the options available when computing
righting arm and heeling arm. Towards the end of the file you will find the following set of
commands.
&subtitle default
RARM 2.5 10 -WIND 100
REPORT
END
&subtitle -cen_lateral 90 0 5
RARM 2.5 10 -WIND 100 -cen_lat 90 0 5
REPORT
END
&subtitle -u_current
RARM 2.5 10 -WIND 100 -u_current
REPORT
END
&subtitle -u_current initial
 RARM 2.5 10 -WIND 100 -u_current initial
REPORT
END
Normally one desires two things from a ballast condition: to use the outboard compartments and
for them to be pressed full. Using outboard compartments increases the radii of gyration and
having them full minimizes the reduction in metacentric height due to partially full
compartments. Pressed compartments rarely result when the &CMP_BAL command is used.

Remember above that we used "@" to select the tanks for ballasting in the previous example. If
we want to use only the outer tanks, we need to specify something else. Here, we change the
&SELECT command to:

&SELECT :OUTER -SELECT @P @S

&CMP_BAL CBRG180 :OUTER

The first of these commands defines a selector called :outer. It selects only the compartments
which end with the letter "P" or the letter "S". Please note that the selector name begins with a
colon (:). In MOSES, all selector names will begin with a colon. Now, this selector is used in the
second command so that when it computes ballast, it only uses the compartments selected
instead of all of them. You can click here to look at the log file. You will notice that indeed the
program only chose to use those compartments which end with the letter "P" or the letter "S". In
addition, one should notice that 2P, 2S, 3P, 3S, 4P and 4S are not filled to capacity. This
generally is not acceptable. One would like, at most, to have two slack tanks - here we have six.

We can fix these problems by using the computed results to intelligently reballast manually. In
particular, we next use the command:

&compartment -percent @ 0 \
4p 100 1.0255 4s 100 1.0255 \
3p 100 1.0255 3s 100 1.0255 \
2p 15 1.0255 2s 15 1.0255 \
1p 100 1.0255 1s 100 1.0255
This command fills 4P and 4S 100 percent full, fills 3P and 3S 100 percent full, fills 2p and 2s to
15 percent full, and fills 1p and 1s to 100 percent full. The command &STATUS COMPART
confirms our ballasting. Notice that all the compartments are empitied in the begining of the
command with "@ 0". This is why compartments 5P and 5S are changed from 100 percent to 0
percent. (For details, click here.)

The next step is to determine whether the vessel will float in an acceptable manner with the
ballast arrangement just described. The command:

&EQUI
instructs the program to find the equilibrium position for the current ballast arrangement. A
summary of the state of the system is produced automatically whenever equilibrium is requested.
(For details, click here.) Here, it shows that the vessel will float at a draft of 6.78 feet with a trim
of 0.03 degrees. This generally is an acceptable floating position. This change in ballast
arrangement will be seen in the righting arm calculations. The comparison between the righting
arm in these output results and the previous ones is left to the user.
A word of caution is in order here. For many arrangements there are no ballast or equilibrium
solutions found. MOSES will place a warning message only in log file, not in the output file.
MOSES will proceed with the analysis after the warning message has been printed. It is therefore
advised that the log file be checked for warning messages whenever the &cmp_bal or the &equi
command is used.

We have now reached the second set of changes to the cif file. Here we demonstate the use of the
options -cen_lat and -u_current. What we are trying to show in this presentation is that the
option -cen_lat requires three value follow it, while the option -u_current does not require a
value. You can read more about these options here. The use of these options changes the heeling
arm results. The comparison between the heeling arms in the output results is left to the user.

This concludes the tutorial section on stability and ballasting. The next section covers motions