Abstract

The aquaculture industry has seen remarkable growth in recent decades, driven by increasing demand for aquatic products and increased awareness of the sustainability of marine resources. Within the industry, catamarans play a vital role as support vessels for various aquaculture activities, such as the transport and installation of mooring equipment. Items such as gravity anchors are usually carried submerged, suspended from the vessel. However, operating conditions, often challenging and unpredictable, raise questions about the safety and efficiency of carrying submerged loads.The current research focuses on understanding the operational limits on small catamarans through tests in regular waves in a wave tank under multiple encounter angles and loading conditions, comparing submerged and on-deck loads. A scaled model was built, using the same mass distribution to replicate the hydrodynamic response of the prototype vessel. Using regular waves, RAOs (Response Amplitude Operators) of the vessel are obtained, and, using a wave spectrum with parameters corresponding to fjord conditions in southern Chile, a seakeeping analysis is carried out, thus obtaining response parameters of interest and comparing the hydrodynamic response to the vessel without cargo, with cargo on deck, and submerged, being suspended from different locations along the length of the vessel.The results show a significant reduction of heave and pitch responses in the case of a suspended load, decreasing operational safety and increasing the probability of water on deck.