The aim of the report is to provide practical guidelines and detailed background information about vessel propulsion in order to allow the designer to make a proper design of a quay wall structure and the bed in front of it. This design can be based on the philosophy to allow scour or on the design philosophy to protect the quay wall against erosion by using a rip rap protection or mattresses.
rnThe design guidelines as proposed in this document consist of a framework to determine the efflux velocity from propulsors, the velocity distribution in the jet and the velocity at the bottom. Based on these loads a coherent design philosophy is presented for a riprap protection based on standard guidelines such as BAW, EAU and the Rock Manual as well as for mattresses for which such coherent guidelines were lacking at present but are developing [Raes et al., 1996; Hawkswood, 2013].
rnThe report deals in particular with very high velocities often caused by propellers, podded propulsors or water jets.
rnIt should be noted that the report does not cover the flow field created by contra rotating propellers. Although the quay structures could be vulnerable to abrasive action from thruster currents in situations with sandy bottom material or floating ice, this aspect is not dealt with in this report. The selection of a particular berthing structure is in general not based on its performance with respect to scour, hence no recommendations regarding this selection are formulated in this report.
