How Does Barge-Master Compensate for the Barge Motions - Experimental and Numerical Study

To increase workability and safety in tough environmental conditions, and to create a more economical alternative for jack-up barges, Barge-Master has developed a wave compensating platform for marine and offshore installation barges. To minimize the motions of the crane positioned on top of it, the platform is driven by three hydraulic actuators that compensate for the roll, pitch and heave motions of the barge. To quantify the performance of the platform for different environmental conditions and crane configurations MARIN performed both wave basin model tests and time-domain simulations on the platform.
In this paper, the experimental setup is first described and the model test results are presented. Then, the theoretical formulation of the time-domain aNySIM model is described and the numerical results are reported. It is shown that the model tests and time-domain results are in good agreement. The results indicate that the barge motions can be compensated by the platform for more than 90% in 1.2m high sea states. However, it is also shown that the instrumentation, data acquisition and controller system need to be fast and tuned to achieve this optimal compensation.