Optimized design method for TSHD's swell compensator basing on modeling and simulation

To optimize a swell compensator when a trailing suction hopper dredger (TSHD) is dredging at sea, the mathematical models were built about the effects of piston force, the distance of the piston movement, the speed of the piston movement, vessel motions and the cable-pulley system; the mathematical models proved that reducing the variation of cable tension force can lead to a smaller normal force on the draghead from seabed, and the optimizing factors were found as a result; then the factors were applied in modeling and simulation by the software of ADAMS to make known the multibody dynamic behavior of a TSHD; It is obvious that the simulation results tallied closely with the mathematical model.