AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON FLOODING INTO THE CAR DECK OF A RORO FERRY THROUGH DAMAGED BOW DOOR

Experiments have been carried out with a model of a ro/ro car ferry with an opening at the bow, instead of a bow door. The model was run into regular head waves, allowing only heave and pitch motions. The flooding of the car deck increased with the increase of the bow opening size, wave height and Froude number, and the peak was around /L=1. The motions changed with the flooding, which ranged from 0 to full volume of the car deck. Theoretical calculations revealed that there was a heavy loss of (static) righting moment due to the shift of water on deck. This study suggests that a ship should be flowed down or stopped on damage, to reduce or avoid further flooding.