Danube Ro-Ro Ves

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Danube Ro-Ro vessel

From Naiades wiki

Keywords Danube, intermodal service, Ro-Ro

Shortdescription

The regular Ro-Ro transports on the Danube began in June 1982. After more than twodecades of successful operation and gained experience, the design of a new generationof this for inland waterways unique type of vessels has been considered.

German Passau and Bulgarian Vidin were set up as ports of origin and destination. Ro

-Ro reloading of road semi-trailers, and/or vans and passenger cars had to be adapted

to fit with existing terminal facilities. The vessel had to be able to realise one turnover

within maximum 2 weeks time.

Fig.1: General arrangement of the VLRRV (Very Large Ro-Ro Vessel)

Objective &target

The objective of the project was to provide a conceptual design for a Danube Ro-Roship to:

transport different types of road vehicles semi-trailers of 40 or 45 feet inlength, vans and passenger cars along the considerable part of the transportcorridor between Middle (southern Germany) and South-eastern Europe(Bulgaria)

be economically and environmentally superior than the transportation of thesame number of vehicles on the road

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be able to realise a given annual turnover in volume as well as the roundtripbetween the terminals within the given time

Key successfactors

Key factors for a successful operation are:

considerable flow of goods on the roads following the course of the Danuberiver

existing of infrastructure bottlenecks on the road corridor through South-easternEurope causing delays, accidents and other non-predictable costs

large transport distances causing either a long driving time (compulsory restsfor driver) or considerably higher costs for truck mode (second driver)

precise tuning of the arrival time in the port of destination which is veryimportant for the sensitive logistic in intermodal transport

economic and environmental benefits referring to road haulage

Innovativeaspects

Inland Ro-Ro vessel for different types of vehicles, extraordinary high length to depthand breadth to draught ratio, introduction of an ESTR instead of classical lane-meteras a more convenient measure for Ro-Ro capacity of this kind of a ship

Benefits forusers

The following benefits can be mentioned:

smooth, reliable and considerably cheaper flow of road semitrailersno significant difference in running time between truck on the road and RoRoship on downstream leg

suitable for transport of all kinds of vehicles and voluminous cargoes includingheavy ones

economically effective and reliable operation also at extreme shallow waters onthe Danube

Geographicarea Danube

StatusThe basic concept and further derivates (varying ships size and type) were draftedwithin the CREATING Project funded by the Commission of European Communitieswithin the 6th Framework Programme for RTD Sustainable Surface Transport.

Difficultiesmet

The following difficulties were met:

alliances between ship and truck operators are missingsuch special ships are an extensive investment

Year(s) 2004-2007

Users andstakeholders

freight forwarders, ship operators, shipyards

Contactperson

Mr. Branislav Zigic, DST-Duisburg, +49-(0)203-99369-52, email me(mailto:[email protected]) , http://www.dst-org.de




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Costs &financing

The specific transport costs of the best of the analysed optional Ro-Ro conceptualdesigns including unavoidable pre- and end-haul by truck are 20-30% lower thanthose by road.

Website /links

CREATING official web (http://www.creating.nu/news/view/15)

Availabledata &

material

The internal project report (of restricted circulation) was issued in 2007, CREATINGNewsletter of March 2007 (can be downloaded from CREATING website, availablein English, German and Dutch language)

Addedvalue:

possibilityfor

applicationelsewhere

The innovative ship concept inland Ro-Ro vessel for special transports of newvehicles vans, passenger cars or trucks and intermodal transport of road semi-trailers is strictly dedicated to the nautical conditions of the Danube stretch betweenPassau in Germany and Vidin in Bulgaria. A huge potential for shifting long haulagetransport from road to river, particularly to the Danube with its large free capacities,has been firmly confirmed. A comparison of technical, economic, logistic andenvironmental performances with existing vessels providing this service nowadaysand first of all trucks, demonstrated the clear superiority of so-called Very Large Ro-

Ro Vessel in all considered aspects.

Principally, the concept could also be applied on other large waterways where

favourable preconditions emphasised as the key success factors above do exist,

however taking into account specific nautical conditions and logistic requirements.

Furtherinformation

An intermodal transport solution comprises at least two transport modes connected ina seamless system that meets the needs of the users. Achieving that, intermodalismoffers the promise of:

lowering overall transportation costs by allowing each mode to be used for the

portion of the trip to which it is best suited;

increasing economic productivity and efficiency, thereby enhancing thecompetitiveness;

reducing congestion and the burden on overstressed infrastructure components;generating higher returns from public and private infrastructure investments;improving mobility;reducing energy consumption and contributing to improved air quality andenvironmental conditions.

The designer task in this part of the CREATING Project was to elaborate an

innovative Danube vessel concept for the transport of semi-trailers - loaded or empty,

used as freight units for any kind of cargo otherwise transported by same vehicles onthe road - and alternatively, new manufactured vehicles like vans and passenger cars.

The best of analysed optional design has the following main particulars:




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Fig.2: Body plan of the VLRRV afterhydrodynamic optimization

The purpose of the ship and the non-uniform nautical conditions along the routeresulted in extraordinary high B/T and extremely high L/D ratios, setting up a

challenge for both the hydrodynamic and structural part of the design.

The chosen triple screw monohull with an optimized form seems to be the best

solution regarding the operational costs and environmental impacts.

The specific transport costs

calculations for the Danube

Ro/Ro vessels were seriously

inhibited by the lack of a uniform

loading unit, as three differentsorts of loads were envisaged so

that the usual capacity measure

for Ro-Ro ships expressed in lane

-metres was found inappropriate. The CREATING team developed a new nominal

loading unit - Equivalent Semi Trailer or ESTR - to enable calculations for different

Ro-Ro cargo mixtures semi-trailers, vans/small trucks and passenger cars.

An operational cost comparison of various design options, existing Danube Ro-Ro

ships and truck, (taking into account pre- and end-haulage by truck for waterborne

transport) showed 20 to 30 % savings; the VLRRV being by far the best option. Due

to propulsion concept based on a modern truck engine technology, the emission couldbe directly compared to full road transport, showing about 20 % less emissions for the

intermodal transport scenario with integrated VLRRV. The calculations were made

for the Frankfurt/Main (D) Sofia (BG) route. Calculations of the operational costs

were done for two nominal speeds of the ship 16 and 14 km/h. These speeds are

those, which can be achieved by a corresponding propulsion power at full draught of

the ship in 5 m water depth. Turnover times were then calculated on the base of this

nominal engaged propulsion power PD and respecting the nautical conditions on

particular river stretches along the route.




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Fig. 3: Comparison of cost indexes (truck = 100)for various new options of vessels, existing ships

(EXCAT) and truck, for ships running at a nominalspeed of 14 and 16 km/h respectively

Fig. 4: Comparison of fuel consumption indexes

(truck = 100)

It is important to mention that running at any of these two nominal speeds, the ship is

able to fulfil the turnover in a considerably shorter time than 2 weeks set up within the

logistic requirements at 16 km/h the complete turnover upon the precise voyage

scenario would be about 10.5 days and at 14 km/h about 12 days.




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In case of end destinations closer to the Danube terminals Passau and Vidin, the

advantages of the Ro-Ro service would be even more emphasized.

Filled in by Branislav Zigic

Date 2009/04/21

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This page was last modified on 22 October 2009, at 10:56.


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Danube Ro-Ro Ves