Dry-Dock

What is the SOLAS requirement for drydocking a ship?

Dry Dock Survey

As per SOLAS requirements, all Merchant vessels require a complete survey of

the hull in a dry dock twice within 5 year period and an intermediate survey
within not more than 36 months. For a passenger vessel, the inspection of the
ship's bottom is to be done annually.

What are the five 5 phases of dry docking?

The phases of dry docking are as follows:

 Phase 1: Pre-docking Preparation.

 Phase 2: Preparing a Docking Plan.
 Phase 3: Understanding the Stability Conditions.
 Phase 4: Arrival.
 Phase 5: The Actual Docking.

The time from “when Stern touches the blocks” to when “full ship is on the
blocks” is the critical period. During the critical period, the vessel's GM reduces.
This is because vessel's 'Gravitational center G moves upwards when Stern touches
the blocks.

The Dry Docking project is one of the most challenging assignments a Technical
Superintendent Engineer is accountable for; making sure the vessel is maintained
so that she can fulfill her commercial missions safely and efficiently.
What is the first rule of docking?

The first and foremost rule of docking is safety.

Which stage of dry docking is the Critical Period?

The interval of time from when the stern takes the blocks to the moment when
the entire ship's weight is borne by the blocks is called Critical Period. We will
understand the details a little later. When the stern of the ship takes the blocks, it is
fixed to the shores (sides of the dock).

Who is responsible for dry docking?

The Dry Docking project is one of the most challenging assignments a Technical
Superintendent Engineer is accountable for; making sure the vessel is maintained
so that she can fulfill her commercial missions safely and efficiently.

Dry Docking of Ships – Understanding Stability And Docking Plan

The process of docking and undocking of ships might not seem like an important
operation. However, it’s a process that is carried out more than once, not only by
shipbuilding yards during the construction of a ship, but also as regular part of the
ship’s lifetime. The understanding of the process of docking is specialised, and
hence, not many naval architects or engineers are thorough with the inner details of
docking. Professionals who are specialised in carrying out docking and undocking of
ships are commonly known as Dock Masters.

But why is it important for ship designers to know about the docking processes? It is
because, the process of docking is done by the aid of a series of drawings and
plans, which are prepared by designers, based on certain calculations. Hence,
knowing docking processes, docking calculations, and understanding how to read
docking plans is an important skill for designers working in shipyards.

From time to time, it becomes important to carry out repairs in the underwater portion
of the hull. Such repairs may include renewal of the sacrificial anodes, refit of the
propellers, overhauling of the propulsion shafts, repair of rudders, underwater hull
blasting to remove fouling, etc. In order to carry out these repairs, the underwater
portion of the hull needs to be made accessible, which is the purpose served by a
dry dock. It has also become a common practice in large shipyards to build their
ships on dry docks, and float it out when ready for trials. For such procedures, the
docking plans need to be prepared taking into consideration the increase in weight of
the ship structure along the building time. Once the ship has been built, the dry dock
is flooded and the ship is undocked. The calculations for undocking also play a major
role in the process because it is during undocking that the the ship is at a risk of
capsizing.
Stability during Docking:

When the ship enters a dry dock, it must have a positive metacentric height; and is
usually trimmed by stern. The floor of the dry dock is lined with keel blocks, which
are so arranged such that they can bear the weight of the ship. When the ship enters
the dry dock, her centerline is first brought in line with the centerline of the keel
blocks by using a combination of plum lines and Leica theodolite.

The dock gates are then closed and the water is pumped out of the dock in stages.
Since the ship has a trim by stern, the stern of the ship will first sit on the keel blocks.
The rate of pumping out water is reduced as the stern is almost about to touch the
keel blocks. The reason is, it is from this stage of the docking procedure when the
stability of the ship starts getting critical. The interval of time from when the stern
takes the blocks to the moment when the entire ship’s weight is borne by the blocks
is called Critical Period. We will understand the details a little later.

When the stern of the ship takes the blocks, it is fixed to the shores (sides of the
dock). This is carried out from aft to forward so that by the time the entire ship takes
the blocks, it is fixed to the shores. When the ship is completely borne by the blocks,
water is pumped out quickly from the dock.

So what happens during the critical period and why?

When the ship’s stern just touches the keel blocks, part of the ship’s weight is being
borne by the keel blocks. The contact between the stern and the keel block creates a
normal reaction or upthrust. The magnitude of this upward normal reaction increases
as the water level in the dry dock reduces. It is this upthrust that creates a virtual
reduction in the metacentric height of the ship. Hence it is very crucial to maintain
sufficient positive metacentric height before docking, lacking which, the ship may
heel over to either side, or even slip off the keel blocks and capsize.

Related Read: Ship Stability – What Makes a Ship Unstable?

The purpose, hence, is to calculate the metacentric height of the ship at different
stages of the docking process, and ensure that it does not fall below the safe limit.
Follow the figure underneath, which shows a ship that has just touched the keel
block by its stern. The location of the center of floatation (F) is known from the
hydrostatic curves at the given displacement. Since the location of the stern is a
known point, its distance from the center of floatation (l) can be calculated instantly.
Figure 1: Longitudinal view (elevation) of a ship during dry docking.

The moment to change trim by 1 cm (MCTc) is a hydrostatic parameter that is

obtained from the hydrostatic curves. So, for a known value of trim, the following
equation is obtained:
Figure 2: Transverse view for critical period during dry docking.

The above figure shows the transverse view of a ship in the critical period, which has
been inclined by an external force to an angle theta (Ɵ). The weight of the ship (W)
acts vertically down through the center of gravity (G). The upward reaction force (P)
acts vertically upwards through the keel of the ship. This is a normal reaction force,
and is equal to the portion of the weight of the ship being borne by the keel blocks.
For equilibrium, the remaining portion of the weight of the ship (W-P) will be
supported by the buoyancy, which will act through the initial metacentric height of the
ship (M).

Related Read: Intact Stability Criteria & Inclining Experiment

What we have now, are three vertical parallel forces acting on the ship:

 Weight (W) acting downward.

 Keel block upthrust (P) acting upward.
 Buoyancy (W-P) acting upward.

The upthrust force (P) can be considered to have an effect similar to that of removal
of a weight from the ship. This has the virtual effect of rising the center of gravity of
the ship from the point ‘G’ to ‘G1’. The metacentric height therefore reduces from GM
to G1M, as shown in the diagram below:

Figure 3: Virtual rise in CG during dry docking.

The virtual reduction in metacentric height at any stage of the docking process can
be calculated by the following expression:

This calculation must be carried out for the condition when the ship has just touched
the keel blocks throughout its length. It is at this point that the keel block upthrust is
maximum, and the risk of tipping over or slipping from keel blocks is most likely if the
metacentric height is too low or negative.
Docking Plans:

A docking plan is a document that is prepared for every ship during its preliminary
design phase. All the information required to bring a ship to a dry dock are included
in its docking plan. While most of the information is condensed into drawings, one
must also refer to the textual references and notes provided, because they also
inform us about the type of dry dock that is being used, and technical specifications
of dry dock that should be met before the ship is docked.

The contents of a typical docking plan are discussed below:

 Table of Hydrostatics and Hydrostatic Curves:

The first few hydrostatics that must be checked before a ship enters a dry dock are:

 Forward draft.
 Aft draft.
 Longitudinal Center of Buoyancy.
 Moment to Change Trim by 1cm.
 Center of Gravity.
 Longitudinal Center of Floatation.
 Transverse metacenter.

Since it is not preferred to provide the information in an easily obtainable manner, a

tabular form of hydrostatic data is more preferable than the curves. In case of
intermediate values, interpolation methods are used, and then tallied with the curves.