Securing And Fendering For Skin To Skin Replenishment

The objective of this proposal is to develop advanced fendering concepts for skin-to-skin replenishment of Navy ships. The U. S. Navy has not utilized skin-to-skin cargo transfer on a large scale, because of the potential for incurring damage to thesuperstructures and masts as the ships roll and pitch in a seaway. However, new demands for at-sea transfer of containers and other large cargo items, in addition to typical refueling and replenishment operations, requires better fendering technology forNavy ships, as well as new technology for cargo transfer control and ship securing. An objective in this proposal is to develop the necessary performance predictions for new and innovative fender designs as inputs into further ship motion studies.Successful conceptual designs will hopefully meet or exceed the cargo transfer objectives for sea state capability, safety, and transfer speed. Future work would then involve transferring general performance criteria to the operations of specific Navyvessels, with the goal of developing recommended fender configurations for various combinations of vessels. An objective in this proposal is to develop the necessary performance predictions for conceptual fender designs as inputs into further ship motionstudies. Successful conceptual designs will hopefully meet or exceed the cargo transfer objectives for sea state capability, safety, and transfer speed.