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Ship Ballasting
Ship Ballasting
Ship Ballasting
De-ballasting Operations
Ballasting and deballasting operations are common and quite frequent onboard ships.
These operations are mainly carried out while the vessel is in port, during ballast
exchange, cargo transfer and while taking heavy weather ballast. Lot of machinery and
manpower is engaged in these day-to-day operations which require great care and
attention while handling.
While preparing a ballasting/deballasting plan the critical stages with regards to ship
stability, stresses and change-over of tanks should be clearly identified and discussed.
Mentioned below are few common problems to be avoided by ship’s personnel involved
in handling ballasting / deballasting operations onboard:
Improper Familiarisation: The officers and crew members responsible for operating
the ballast pumps and valves must be fully conversant with the line up and meaning of
various “valve indications” and symbols provided on the ballast line up diagrams in
Cargo control room and Pump room. They should be able to differentiate between
indication of manual valves, hydraulic valves, manual-hydraulic valves, suction and
discharge gauges for pumps and the prime mover for ballast pumps such as steam,
electricity or hydraulic pressure. This helps a lot in executing the whole operation
smoothly.
Faulty Gauges and Sounding pipes : Most of the Ballast tank gauges work on
pneumatic pressure difference method, where a measured pressure of air and difference
of counter pressure gives the level of ballast in a tank and the reading is displayed in
Cargo control room through a digital or analog reading. These gauges are to be purged
regularly and readings should to be compared with manual soundings to eliminate
erratic readings. Sounding pipes are often found choked with rags or sounding rods or
tapes. They must be clear at all times to get correct manual soundings to ensure the tank
is completely empty or intermediate readings are correct in case the gauges are faulty.
This will prevent dry running of ballast pumps.
During topping up ballast tanks, if the sighting ports for ballast manholes are kept open,
it can help greatly if the tank reaches the overflow level in case CCR readings mismatch
or are imperfect.
Pressure Surges: While carrying out ballasting /de-ballasting operation the pumps in
use are mostly of centrifugal type. To start a centrifugal pump, positive suction pressure
must always be kept in mind. The discharge valve of the pump can be kept upto 30%
open to prevent damage to the valve body or valve seat ring. The discharge pressures
and RPMs of the pump to be increased slowly and gradually to avoid any pressure
surges in the lines and load surges in the engine room as well. Often pressure surges are
common causes for damaging the lines and valves. They even cause the load on boiler or
generator to fluctuate abruptly thereby tripping the plant completely and delaying the
operation as a consequence. During changeover or brief idle periods during operation
pumps can be run in sea-to-sea mode to avoid dry running and over-heating of pump
casing or further damage to the pump seal.
While taking ballast by gravity during loaded passage, the inboard line to the tank
should be opened up completely, keeping the sea chest valve closed and only then the
sea chest valve should be opened. As in ship’s loaded condition due to deeper draft the
sea water comes in with heavy pressure and can damage the line fittings or valves if any
valve is closed in between.
While deballasting by gravity the line from the ballast sea chest to the tank must be
opened completely keeping the tank valve closed. Once the line is fully open then the
Shallow Waters and Sediment Deposits: Care should be taken while carrying out
ballast operations in areas with low under keel clearance or with muddy bottom. They
are the main reason due to which ballast pump strainers are found choked or huge
sediment deposits are found inside the tanks after deballasting such water. These
puddles of mud accumulated in tanks can be considerable if the tanks are not being
inspected and cleaned to remove sediments regularly. Open Sea Ballast Water exchange
can be another effective method in removal of sediments. Mud and sediments can choke
the suction bellmouth inside the tank and thus retaining excess ballast onboard can be
crucial where a vessel is loading to her draft marks.
Discharge Pressure in Parallel Suction Lines: Often during ballasting when two
ballast pumps are running together if the suction lines are common, one of the pumps
tends to have better suction than the other. Specially the one with direct suction line will
have better suction than the second pump’s suction line which is a branched one from
the main line. This should be borne in mind and the discharge pressure of the pumps
adjusted accordingly to ensure good suction to both the pumps till the water level in the
tank comes down. As the level falls further good use of trim and list can help pumps
retain suction for a longer period and thus reduce the deballasting time considerably.
However if pump looses suction it can be run in sea-to-sea mode for some time and as
the suction and discharge pressure builds up the changeover of suction to the tank can
be done to resume de ballasting.
Ship Stability: With regards to the ship stability aspect if the rate of loading is slow in
any port and the vessel is deballasting by gravity at a higher rate, at all times vessel
should retain at least 1/3rd of the deadweight. Few terminals request the same in their
pre-arrival checklists as well. Also the seagoing stresses should never exceed permissible
limits during any stage of such an operation.
Understanding and carrying out ballasting and de-ballasting procedures properly is of
grave importance for seafarers, considering stringent environmental regulations
introduced regarding the same.
ا لمشاكل الرئيسية التي تواجهها السفن أثناء عمليات التزود وتفريغ مياه الصابورة