Time Domain Simulation of Ship Steering Gear Control Systems

Abstract

Considering the effects of oil compressibility, leakage, hydrodynamic damping and friction, in addition to other nonlinearities, such as bang-bang relay, pump saturation and limiters of oil pressure and pump flow, the performance of five different types of ship steering gear control systems are examined using digital computer simulation techniques. Three of the controllers examined are “bang-bang” controllers, while the remaining two are “analog”. The behavior and performance of the various systems on three ship configurations are compared. It is shown that the analog steering gear controllers can be expected to demonstrate superior performance of the ship/steering system in calm water operations.