Port of Salaverry: Implementation of Shoretension® system

Salaverry Terminal Internacional S.A. (SATI) commissioned PRDW the development of a study to support and verify the technical feasibility and advantages of incorporating ShoreTension® type devices, to control the tensions in the mooring lines and reduce the motion amplitudes of vessel moored in the basin of the Salaverry Port Terminal, operated by SATI.

In order to evaluate the operational benefits of implementing ShoreTension® devices in the mooring arrangement, a study of wave penetration and long waves was carried out in the basin of the Port of Salaverry, whose results were then used as data for the development of specialized models of the dynamic behavior of a ship moored at Berthing Site 1B.

The modeling of vessels in port basins requires solving complex phenomena, such as wave penetration and long period oscillations that occur inside the basin, and their interaction with the vessels moored in the terminal. On the other hand, the representation of ShoreTension® devices requires knowledge of their operation and the physics that govern them. In recent years, PRDW has developed a set of highly specialized tools and models to adequately solve these aspects, which were applied in the study.

Two mooring configurations were studied, with and without the use of ShoreTension® devices, in order to analyze two important benefits of their use: reduction of vessel motion
amplitudes and mitigation of the risk of mooring line failures.

In the hydrodynamic response analysis, the forcing of both short-period waves and long waves and resonance of the basin were considered. All these effects, with the action of wind and current combined, were analyzed together, thus the results reported in the present study consider all the mentioned variables.

The obtained results allow us to conclude that the use of ShoreTension® devices presents two major benefits: reduction of the amplitude of movements of the moored vessels, with the consequent increase in operational efficiency; and total mitigation of the risk of mooring
line breaking.

The results of the analysis were presented to the Port Authority, so when the operational limits of the port are established, the efficiency and improvement related to the
implementation of ShoreTension® devices will be considered.