A Study on the Towing Force of Heavy Loaded Barge against Strong Current

A marine collision accident occurred at the Jin-do water way. A barge loaded with heavy equipment of Power Generation Plant was being towed at its side by two tugs "A" and "B" from Byeg-pa harbour to the designated position to be used for power generation plant near Jin-do bridge. The Power Generation Plant was 40-meters high loaded atop the barge. When the "tugs and tow" were approaching the Jin-do the bridge, the two towing tugs lost maneuvering control of the barge and it went off-course, hit first the waterway embankment and finally struck the lower part of bridge`s span and post musing the barge to capsize and sunk its cargo into the sea. The bridge also suffered damages where the top of the Plant struck At the time of the accident, there was a strong tidal current at the waterway. This paper calculates the safe towing force of barges with heavy loads when traversing in a strong tidal current situation in narrow waterway.