For more than three decades now ship handling simulators are involved in the design process when it comes to build new harbours or to extend existing waterways and approach channels. In this time period not only the experience with applying the tool shiphandling simulator has grown, but the technology and capabilities of the simulators themselves have improved and developed tremendously. As a consequence, today the ship handling simulator (SHS) is the preferred tool if a determination of the navigability is required.
The main advantages are in the absence of any scale effect and the realistic interaction between the nautical personal involved and the scenario to be investigated; made possible by real instrumentation and consoles in the simulator’s full mission bridge equipment and appealing display of the environment. This strength is at the same time part of the weakness of this approach: the apparent reality is generally not backed by the underlying numerical models, which are not of a similar precision and the reflection one to one to what happens in nature requires careful adjustment of the simulator’s behaviour. The art of high fidelity simulation for navigability checking or harbour layout testing is reached by knowing the model’s details and use them appropriate to gain the most realistic and reliable result of a simulation with a SHS.
The presentation will provide an overview on the technical development of Shiphandling Simulators and the state of the art available today. This will be followed by a discussion of successful application of SHS to solve nautical problems in approach channels and harbours. The presentation will close with recommendations on future developments on SHS-technology and on the adequate application of SHS for design checking of approach channels and harbour layouts.
The gist of this contribution is to spread generally a deeper understanding of SHS and what can be expected from this valuable tool as well as where careful application is required and where its application may become misleading or may even fail.