Page 77: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2005)

November 2005 77 date up to 45 persons. The hopper is of semi-closed type with center box keel- son and transverse saddles. The hopper load can be dumped through 10 conical bottom valves — arranged in two rows — or discharged via a bow coupling through a shore pipeline.

This TSHD is equipped with two 900 mm diameter trailing suction pipes. The shape and the equipment of the hopper represent a new way of construction developed by Vosta LMG. The hopper has smooth walls and the bottom valves are arranged in two rows. The unloading equipment, the bottom valves and the jet water system for diluting the load allow quick discharge of the hopper even with- out conventional bottom flaps with wide openings. In order to benefit of building in series, a number of dredging compo- nents such as side suction pipes, hoisting frames, bottom valves, overflow weirs, just to mention a few are of proven seri- al design. The lines of the ship, howev- er, have been optimized to suit the respective applications and the different propulsion and dredging concepts. The two tailor made dredge pumps are installed in a separate room and are driv- en direct from the two main propulsion plants.

Both trailing suction pipes are equipped with the latest development in draghead design. These active drag- heads combine high excavation capabil- ities for loosening high compact soil at

Huanghua Port with optimized hydraulic properties for mixture trans- portation. The dredge production can be optimized by controlling the draghead visor angle to the ground.

The automation controls, visualizes and reports the entire dredging process.

It controls the pumps and valves to ensure operation with the maximum and always optimized discharge rates.

Amongst other parameters, the mixture concentration, mixture flow and pres- sure on the suction side are taken into account for optimization of the dredging process. Moreover, various automatic functions and sequences such as swing-

Circle 244 on Reader Service Card

China

Shen Hua, a

Trailing Suction

Hopper Dredge (TSHD) for the

Chinese Harbor

Authority.

Bow Coupling on Shen Hua

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