Jeroen Verwilligen and Steve Claes, had the opportunity to take part in the first transit of the Canal Ghent-Terneuzen by a 38m wide, deep-drafted ship .
The canal pilots brought the bulk carrier Piavia (230m x 38m x 12.2m), safely from the anchorage station in Everingen (Western-Scheldt), via the New Lock Terneuzen (Nieuwe Sluis Terneuzen), to the berth at the port of Ghent (part of North Sea Port).
On the ship bridge, there were also observers from the Dutch pilotage, the port authority (North Sea Port) and the Common Nautical Authority.
During the transit the pilotage (Loodswezen DAB) installed four RTK-GPS antennas to measure the ship positions in all six degrees of freedom, while Flanders Hydraulics monitored the application of rudder and propeller.
In the coming weeks, Flanders Hydraulics will process all the data collected, to provide a full assessment of the ship behaviour during the transit. This includes details such as ship's speeds, keel clearances, sinkage (ship's squat), and ship-bank effects.
This analysis will support the decision-making for future optimizations of the accessibility of the Canal Ghent-Terneuzen and will provide valuable data for the validation of the mathematical models of the full-mission bridge simulators of Flanders Hydraulics.
For more research on bank effects (on the Canal) also verify https://www.waterbouwkundiglaboratorium.be/en/research/bank-effects
