Control of stability parameters on specialized vessels during cargo operations with heavy and oversized cargoes

Purpose. This article describes how to improve the methods to control stability parameters during ship`s cargo operations with heavy and oversized cargoes on specialized vessels (such as Heavy Lift). Method. The analysis of theoretical and practical developments devoted to solving the problem of ensuring the safety of cargo operations on the ships of type Heavy Lift is given. The characteristics and disadvantages of the existing most functional integrated software tools of various manufacturers (Germany, the Netherlands) are highlighted. Results. Key areas of research in this area are identified. The control parameters that affect the stability of the vessel and, as a consequence, the safety of ship cargo operations are presented, classified and described. It is shown that the solution to the problem of ensuring the efficiency of managerial decision-making can be achieved by using the decision support system (DSS) for managing dynamic parameters that are controlled when loading heavy and oversized cargoes by the ship cranes. When creating specialized DSSs, it is necessary to form a knowledge base on loading / unloading procedures, already tested on real examples in the practice of maritime shipping, and using multi-criteria optimization methods to solve the problems of choosing the best control actions for a particular loading / unloading process. Scientific novelty. Author suggested the approaches to improve standard procedure of the loading operations on such vessels by using decision support system. This system executes monitoring and management of a number of the vessel characteristics: quantity of ballast and its distribution in ballast tanks, heeling angle, metacentric height, hook load, boom outreach, wind speed and rolling period. Practical importance. Use of the proposed method for the creating decision support systems during cargo operations with heavy and oversized cargoes on specialized vessels will allow, with exciting equipment, to reduce risk, increase the safety of these operations, decrease economic costs by reducing the time of cargo operations.