Bollard Pull Calculations – an Introduction

(Part I)
by Team TheNavalArch | Feb 4, 2017 | Marine Transportation, Towing | 0 comments

Post Views: 18,155

Bollard Pull Calculations for Towing Operations – an
Introduction
Part I – Calculating the required Bollard Pull (BP)
(Click here for Part II)
 Source: pixabay
SECTION A – INTRODUCTION
Bollard Pull calculation is one of the most frequent calculations performed in marine
towing operations.
Towing operations involve the pulling of a vessel (it can be a barge, ship or an
offshore structure) using another vessel (usually a tug).
From a very basic point of view, we can draw the following conclusions regarding
towing
 A bigger vessel will require higher force for towing
 The harsher the environment, the more will be the towing force required
 The efficiency of the tug deployed for towing will also affect the towing operation
When selecting and deploying tugs for towing operations, we would like to know a
few things before we make a final decision:
 How big a tug should I select for safely towing the vessel?
 How much maximum speed will I be able to make with the tug(s) I selected?
Each of the above questions merits a detailed explanation, and we will cover each of
them separately. In this Article, we will cover the first question – how big a tug is
required for safe towing of a vessel?
First, let’s clear some basic concepts. Please note that this article covers only the
scenario of head sea towing.
SECTION B – BASIC CONCEPTS
Concept – Bollard Pull of a Tug
 Source: weir-jones.com
The capacity of tugs is measured by their rated Bollard Pull. The Bollard Pull of a tug
is the force it exerts at zero forward speed, in calm water conditions, with the engine
working at its full power (100% MCR). Continuous Bollard Pull (CBP) is measured by
a test as the average bollard pull measured at a length of time (say 10 minutes),
while Maximum Bollard Pull is the highest bollard pull measured during the test.
Concept – Towing Efficiency and available pulling force at zero speed

Source: pixabay
The tug has an efficiency of its own when towing the vessel in sea. It depends on the
environment of the tow, and on size of the vessel towed.
If the bollard pull of a tug is denoted by BP, and its towing efficiency is denoted by ƞ,
then the total available pulling force from the tug will be
Available pulling force of the tug = Bollard Pull of the tug x Towing efficiency
Available Pulling force of the tug = BP x ƞ
Concept – Required Towing Force
How do we relate the Bollard Pull of the tug to the vessel being towed?
Basically, the vessel being towed will experience environmental forces of wind, wave
and current in the sea. Together, these forces constitute the ‘Towing force’. Let’s
denote it by FTOT
For the tug to be able to pull the vessel, the available pulling force of the Tug must
be greater than the total force on the vessel.
 BP x ƞ > FTOT
 BP > FTOT/ ƞ
 Thus the Bollard Pull of the tug should be more than FTOT/ ƞ. This is called
the Required Bollard Pull, and this is what we seek to calculate. Next we will see
how the towing force can be calculated.
Concept – Environmental forces
The required Towing force is defined as the force which is required to HOLD the
vessel in sea under certain environmental conditions of wind, wave and current.

Total Towing Force, FTOT = Wind Force + Wave force + Current force
Please note that the towing force is the required force for HOLDING the vessel (also
called STALL condition), and not for towing it.
Now, what are these environmental conditions and where do we get them from?
When towed in the sea, a vessel will experience forces of wind, wave and current. To
HOLD the vessel in the given environment, we need to overcome these forces.
 Wind force acts on the part of the vessel above waterline and exposed to wind
 Current force acts on the underwater portion of the vessel
 Wave forces – the waves coming on to the vessel add to the resistance force on the
vessel
Wind forces depend on the wind speed, current forces depend on the current speed
and Wave forces depend on the (significant) height of waves.
Industry standards like DNVGL Guidelines for Marine Transportation (earlier ND-
0030, now superseded by DNVGL-ST-N001) prescribe the standard wind, wave and
current parameters to be used for bollard pull calculations, depending on condition
under which the towing is being performed.
ND-0030 requires that the bollard pull of the tug should be sufficient to HOLD the
towed vessel in the environment stated below:
Standard Criteria – For Open Ocean tows, following environmental parameters are
prescribed as per ND-0030
 Wind Speed – 20 m/s (roughly 40 knots)
 Current speed – 0.5 m/s (roughly 1 knot)
 Significant Wave Height – 5 meters
For benign weather areas, the following criteria are prescribed as per ND0030
 Wind Speed – 15 m/s (roughly 30 knots)
 Current speed – 0.5 m/s (roughly 1 knot)
 Significant Wave Height – 2 meters
A question naturally arises – how do we know if the tow is an open ocean tow or a
benign tow? For this we need to study the environment of the route of the tow, and
 get the historical environment data of the route. We can get it from environment
data provider like Metocean. In some cases, data from Nautical charts is also
acceptable (depends on the discretion of Marine Warranty Surveyor). The wind
speed, wave height and current speed should be obtained for the specific time of the
year when the tow is expected to take place. For example, if the towing operation is
expected in May +/- 2 months, then the environment data from March till July
should be referenced. The most extreme values for the period should be utilized.
From the environment data, we can decide whether it is an open ocean tow or a
benign tow. Basically, if anywhere along the route a wave of (significant) height
more than 2 meters is expected, then the Open Ocean criteria is to be used. If
everywhere along the route, waves of significant wave height less than 2 meters are
expected, then the environment data must be submitted to the Warranty Surveyor
and exemption obtained for using the ‘benign’ sea state case before proceeding with
Bollard Pull calculations.
SECTION C – CALCULATION STEPS

Now we can delineate the steps for performing Required Bollard Pull calculations for
towing a vessel as follows:
 Step 1 – Determine the environmental parameters (Open Ocean or Benign)
 Step 2 – Calculate the Wind, Wave and Current forces on the vessel
 Step 3 – Add up the wind, wave and current forces to find the total force on the
vessel, FTOT
 Step 4 – Get the towing efficiency of the tug, ƞ
 Step 5 – Calculate the minimum required Bollard Pull (BP) using the formula
Minimum Required BP > FTOT/ ƞ
Now we will discuss the calculation methods in detail.

SECTION D – CALCULATION METHODS IN DETAIL

 Wind forces
Wind forces are the forces on the part of the vessel above the waterline which is
exposed to winds.
For calculating wind force, besides the wind speed and air density, we need the
Transverse wind-exposed sectional area of the vessel (also called windage area)
Calculating the transverse windage area
When the vessel is being towed forward, then the transverse section of the vessel
faces the winds head on.
Some points to keep in mind when calculating this transverse windage area are:
 There are two parts of the windage area – the area contributed by the part of the
vessel’s hull above water, and the area contributed by items on the deck, i.e.,
Cargo, Deck structures and Accommodation
 The area contributed by the hull can be obtained from the midship section
dimensions/drawing
 The area contributed by above-deck items can be calculated as the area of the
silhouette of the above deck items.
 Cargo height coefficient – The speed of wind varies with the height above the water
surface. For zones of the cargo which are higher, a cargo height coefficient needs to
be additionally applied to take into account the higher wind speeds experienced by
higher zones of the cargo. Cargo height coefficients are provided in ABS MODU Rules
(see below)
 Cargo shape coefficient – The wind force experienced by the cargo also depends on
the shape of the cargo. For example, a box shaped cargo will experience higher
forces than cargo which is cylindrical in shape (with the cylindrical face exposed to
wind). To take into account the effect of cargo shape on wind force, a cargo shape
coefficient needs to be incorporated in the windage area calculations. Cargo shape
coefficients for typical cargo shapes are provided in ABS MODU Rules (see below)

 The final windage area should incorporate the height and shape coefficients
 Sketch showing the Transverse Windage Area and Transverse Underwater Areas of a simple
Barge
The wind force is calculated from the air density, wind speed and the transverse
windage area using standard formula
Force = ½ x air density x (wind speed)2 x Transverse Windage Area
Current forces
The current forces are basically, the forces experienced by the underwater part of
the hull.
The underwater part of the hull experiences what is called as ‘calm water resistance’.
This is the resistance the ship experiences when it is moving in water without waves.
In the STALL scenario when the tow is not moving, the vessel is actually static, but
the current moving against the vessel creates the same effect as the vessel moving
with the speed of the current in calm water. Thus, the resistance experienced by the
vessel because of current is equivalent to the resistance which the vessel will
experience in calm water when moving at the speed of the current.
The Calm Water Resistance has many components, and is a complicated calculation.
Calm water resistance of a ship can be calculated using
 Empirical methods like Holtrop-Mennen method, Taylor’s method etc. Each method
is applicable to certain ship types
 Direct Model Tests
 Computer simulation
Barges
For barges, some studies have been done to develop empirical methods of
calculating resistance. Some of them are
 Bureau Veritas – Towage at Sea of Vessels or Floating Units
 Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) Paper 3320 – Resistance of Offshore Barges
and Required Horsepower
If the vessel is a barge, sometimes a simplification is adopted, subject to acceptance
by MWS. Similar to the calculation of transverse wind force, the current force can
also be calculated from the transverse underwater area.
Calculation of transverse underwater hull area is pretty simple in case of barges,
which generally have a rectangular section shape. If the width of the Barge is B, and
its draft is T, then the underwater transverse section area is simply B x T. If there
are cuts around the bilge of the barge, these can be deducted from the area. The
current force is finally calculated using the standard formula
Current force = ½ x water density x (current speed)2 x underwater transverse
section area
Ships
For ships, an elaborate method (e.g., Holtrop-Mennen method) to calculate calm
water resistance is usually recommended to get more accurate current force.
Wave forces
The current force calculated above is actually the force which the vessel will
experience in calm water. However, the sea is a dynamic environment because of
waves which the vessel encounters. These waves add to the forces on the vessel and
are these forces are called as ‘Added Wave Resistance’ or the ‘wave drift force’.
Wave drift force depends on the dimensions of the vessel, and its shape. The
method for calculation of added wave resistance is provided in DNV-RP-H103
Modelling and Analysis of Marine Operations Sec 7.2.6 (see below extract).

Source: DNV-RP-H103 Modelling and Analysis of Marine Operations

Towing Efficiency
How do we get towing efficiency?
The tug’s efficiency is affected by many factors, like, size of tug, the harshness of
environment, and the towing speed. ND-0030 provides a table to calculate the
towing efficiency of the Tug. If the tug’s Continuous Bollard Pull is BP, then the table
provides following values for the Towing efficiency

Source: ND-0030 Guidelines for Marine Transportations

Calculation of Required Bollard Pull
Now that we have the wind, wave and current forces, we can calculate the total
resistance force on the vessel as
FTOT = FWIND + FWAVE + FCURRENT
 Then the required Bollard Pull can be calculated as
Required BP = FTOT/ƞ
The continuous bollard pull of tug must be higher than the Required BP for the tug to
be suitable for towing.
SECTION E – The role of Marine Warranty Surveyor (MWS)
The Marine Warranty Surveyor has a very critical role in towing operations. His role
includes, but is not limited to
 Survey of vessel and tug for towing equipment and general condition
 Approval and acceptance of environmental conditions/weather data
 Review of the bollard pull calculations
 Witness and review of Bollard Pull tests, if required to be performed
 Review and approval of the towing plan
The towing operator has to work closely with the MWS by providing all documents
and calculations on time and getting MWS approvals prior to the operation. The
potential areas of contention with the MWS might be the following, and the towing
operator should carefully prepare the supporting documents to get MWS approval in
time
 Disagreement over environmental criteria adopted
 Non-willingness of MWS to grant benign weather criteria
 Disagreement over the method adopted for Bollard Pull calculation
 Disagreement over the condition of the tug
 Insistence to carry out a Bollard Pull test to confirm the rating of the tug
While the above are not regular occurrences, it is advisable for the towing operator
to be proactive in treading these issues to avoid delays and surprises during the
operation.
That leads to the conclusion of this Part – I. In Part – II we will discuss the method
of calculating the maximum feasible towing speed for a given environment.
(Click here for Part II)
 Bollard Pull Calculations – an Introduction
(Part II)
by Team TheNavalArch | Feb 18, 2017 | Marine Transportation, Towing | 1 comment
Post Views: 5,087
Bollard Pull Calculations for Towing Operations
Part II – Finding out the maximum feasible tow speed
(To read Part I, please click here)

Introduction
This is Part – II of the two part article on Bollard Pull calculations. In the Part I we
saw how to calculate the required Bollard Pull to select a tug. At this stage, we have
accomplished the following
 Calculated the required Bollard Pull (BP) to tow the vessel (barge or ship)
 Selected the tug based on the required Bollard Pull
In this part we will see how we can estimate the maximum safe towing speed for the
vessel to ply in a given sea state. Before we get to the actual methodology, let’s look
at the concept of Available Pull of the tug at non-zero speed.
Concept – Available pull of the tug at non zero-speed
By now we have selected the tug, and it has its rated bollard pull, which is its
maximum pulling force at zero forward speed. Let’s call it BPmax. As we saw in Part I,
this BPmax should be more than the total required towing force for the STALL
condition. However, the actual towing scenario (called the TOW condition) is
different in two ways
 First, the tug is not static but towing the vessel forward at a non-zero speed. When
the tug moves forward, part of the tug’s power is used in overcoming the resistance
of the tug itself, and the rest is actually available to tow the vessel. Let’s say, if
 Ftug is the force which the tug utilizes for itself, then the available power for towing
(BPavailable) will be

BPavailable = BPmax – Ftug

At zero speed, Ftug is zero, and whole BPmax is available for the holding the towed
vessel. At the maximum free-running speed of the tug, the whole BPmax is utilized for
the tug’s own resistance, and the available power for towing is zero. Thus, if we plot
the available towing power of the tug vs speed, we will get a curve like below. The
actual curve is not exactly a straight line, but we will assume a straight line to keep
things simple (it also leads to more conservative results).

In the example above, we can see that at 6 knots towing speed, the maximum
available power for towing is only 40% of the BPmax, while 60% goes to overcome
the tug’s own resistance
 Second, the environment under which towing is performed is not the same as the
STALL environment scenario. Usually, the STALL sea state is a harsher one in which
the requirement is to HOLD the tow, and not move it forward. The towing will be
done is a comparatively milder environment.
Our objective is to find out the maximum speed which the tug can make in a given
environment.
Methodology
The methodology which we are going to follow for the above exercise is outlined
below
 Step 1 – Get the environmental parameters under which the towing will be done
 Step 2 – Get the tug particulars
 Bollard Pull at 100% and 85% MCR or other MCR values as required
 Tug maximum forward free run speed
 Step 3 – Plot the tug performance curves for different MCR values
 Step 4 – Calculate the total environmental forces (on the towed vessel) for different
speed of towing, beginning from zero speed up to the maximum tug speed
 Step 5 – Plot the curve of Total Environmental force (FTOT) vs towing speed on the
same graph as the tug performance curve.
 Step 6 – The intersection of the curves for total environmental force and tug
performance will give the limiting towing speed
Let’s now see each step in detail

Step 1 – Get the environmental parameters

The environmental parameters for towing in this case are the maximum wind,
current and wave in which the towing operator proposes to tow the vessel. The
towing operator has to advise the safe limiting environment in which she/he plans to
tow. For example, the operator may decide that a wind of 20 knots, wave of 3 m
and current of 1 knots is the limiting environment in which she/he plans to tow the
vessel. The operator would like to know the maximum speed she/he can make with
this limiting environment.
Step 2 – Get the tug particulars
We saw that the available power for towing keeps reducing with speed of tow. The
performance curve of the tug is an important input for determining the available
power. For plotting the performance curve, we need the following:
 The free running maximum speed of the tug – this is obtained from the tug’s
specifications sheet
 The Bollard Pull of the tug at 100% MCR and 85% MCR. Usually the tug will be
operated at 85% MCR. 100% MCR is more significant for the STALL condition to
calculate the maximum required Bollard Pull. If the tug is operating at some other
MCR value, then the Bollard Pull for that value should also be obtained.
Step 3 – Plot the tug performance curve
Once we have the above data, we can plot the tug performance curves for 100% &
85% MCR (or any other value) using the method described in Section 2.
Step 4 – Calculate the total environmental forces for different tow speeds
 Wind and current forces are calculated using standard formulas described in Part I.
 The wind and current forces will keep increasing as the tow speed increases. This is
because the effective (or relative) wind/current speed against the vessel increases
as the vessel moves forward. If the speed of the tug is Vtow, and speed of the wind is
Vwind, then the effective wind speed is
Veffective = Vtow + Vwind
The wind force will have to be calculated for the above effective speed. Same holds
true for the current force
 The wave force is calculated based on DNV-RP-H103 Sec 7.2.6. The wave force also
increases with the towing speed, and is calculated in accordance with the relevant
sections of DNV.
 Once we have the wind, wave and current forces, we calculate the total
environmental force, FTOW by adding them up. FTOW is calculated for different tow
speeds from zero to maximum tug speed.
We can do the calculations and present them in a spreadsheet format. Once such
calculation table is presented below (speed means towing speed)

Step 5 – Plot FTOT against tug speed on the same plot as for the tug
performance curve.
The curve will then look something like the below (the tug’s bollard pull is 150 MT)
 Step 6 – Finding the limiting towing speed
The intersection of the curves for total environmental force and tug performance will
give the limiting towing speed. In the above plot, the point ‘X’ is the intersection of
the two curves. We can see that at all points to the left of the point ‘X’ (i.e., speeds
less than 2.9 knots marked by blue zone), the available towing pull of the tug
exceeds the required towing force, thus making the towing feasible. However, to the
right of point ‘X’ (the red zone), the available tug power is less than the towing force
required and towing is not feasible. Thus the maximum towing speed feasible for this
case is 2.9 knots.
Thus we saw how the maximum feasible towing speed can be calculated for towing a
vessel under a given environment. This exercise becomes useful when the Client or
MWS requires that a minimum towing speed be achieved and demonstrated through
calculations.
That brings us to the end of this two-part article on Bollard Pull. We hope it has been
useful to our readers. Do let us know your thoughts in the comment section. Happy
Towing!!