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Bow Thunnel Thruster
Bow Thunnel Thruster
Reliability of bowthrusters
Older units are proned to problems:
Outdated electrics and hydraulics
Situated in fore part of ship and subjected to heavy
weather,vibration and damp.
Negligence of maintenance
lack of use on long sea passages
New units:
More reliable and robust
Power of thrusters
More common:
reversible electric motor driving a fixed pitch propeller
Reversible electric motor + hydraulically operated variable
pitch propeller
Restricted location
Size of tunnel
Ballast draft
Hull strenght
Speed limitation
Thruster effectiveness
Transverse thrust of
propeller
Moderate thrust of
bowthruster to port to
compensate possible
swing
swing
pivot point moves aft : big turning lever for the thruster / possible to
steer the vessel with the bowthruster
beware for poor thruster power and sluggish response of vessel
avoid the development of a big rate of turn: difficult to control
Bowthruster at work
Position 1
Ship has entered the channel
Good position with bow canted to
port to allow for prolonged use of
stern power and transverse thrust
Position 2
Insufficient correction of transverse
thrust stern has dropped away from
centre of channel
If propeller and thruster are now used
simultaneously: lateral motion to port
this is not intentional and may be
unnoticed
Position 3
ship steady on correct heading but off
centered
at this stage: use bow thruster
vigorously / or: kick ahead with rudder to
port to bring stern back to the centre of
the channel
Position 4
Sequence of events in position 2 is
repeated ship keeps drifting to port
On very large vessels, the kinetic
energy keep the vessel drifting for a
long time.
A light wind on the Sb side will
increase the drift.
Position 5
The ship is getting too close to the
edge and is running out of
manoeuvring space
There is insufficient water to port to
enable the bow to be thrusted to
port
Position 6
The ship ultimately is hitting an
obstruction on the port side.
Leaving a berth
1. Vessel turns around a pivot point situated forward: stern leaves the
berth
2. Let go all lines fwd and thruster to Sb: with engine stopped and
thruster at work the pivot point moves to pos. b and the bow
leaves the berth
Leaving a berth
Small ships often use a combination of forward spring +
rudder + propeller + bowthruster
Although the lever of the turning moment is large, the effect will
be very low, because :
1. the effectiveness of the bow thruster is very small
2. the effectiveness is decreasing rapidly with the ships speed
ahead
3. there is high water pressure at the bow and consequently
the lateral resistance of the ship is highest near the fore ship
and is increasing with the speed. The bow thruster has to
push the bow against the bow wave.
1. we first start by using only the rudder and the propellor: the
pivot point moves ahead, between the bow and midships, the
exact location depending of the ratio of the ships lenght to
beam (L/B). The high lateral resistance at the bow, the bow
wave, will now have a favourable influence on the turn.
Crablike movement
New Designs
Anti-suction tunnel
Anti-suction tunnel
To solve this problem of the counteracting force, an
extra tunnel is sometimes constructed behind the
bow thruster tunnel to connect the negative and
positive pressure fields : this is the AST tunnel
( anti suction) .
K-Jet
Altering the shape of tunnel
apertures to improve the waterflow
through the tunnel and avoid
turbulences
Navyflux
Veth-Jet bowthruster
Veth-Jet bowthruster