5/29/2020 What is a Hull Roughness Analyzer and How is a Ship’s Hull Roughness Measured?

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What is a Hull Roughness Analyzer and

How is a Ship’s Hull Roughness Measured?
By Anish | In: Guidelines | Last Updated on February 7, 2020

A Ship’s hull roughness is a very important factor, which directly affects the power and fuel consumption
of the ship’s main engine. Hull roughness of the ship is measured from time to time, mainly during dry
docking of the ship.

Measuring Hull Roughness

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The hull roughness of the ship can be determined by a tool known as hull roughness analyzer or similar
instrument for those ship which are not coated with silicon based foul release paint coating.

If the ship’s hull is coated with silicon based paint, speed trails are done to determine hull roughness
which gives changes in the performance and speed of the ship.

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5/29/2020 What is a Hull Roughness Analyzer and How is a Ship’s Hull Roughness Measured?

Understanding Hull Roughness Analyzer

A Hull Roughness Analyser (HRA) consists of a portable microprocessor along with a digital printout and
display unit.

A computer is connected to the hand held carriage having a stylus measuring head.

The stylus head is moved around the hull surface to measure and record the hull roughness profile.

The short wave roughness is the diameter of the stylus tip. The long wave cut off is set at 50 mm.

Working of Hull Roughness Analyzer

One traverse of the head at any point on the hull will collect information from 10 samples having length of
50 mm.

For each 50 mm sample, the micro processor will assess the mean gradient through the peaks and
valleys to give highest peak to lowest valley measurement for that sample.

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This measurement is known as Rt (50).

The roughness check covers approx 100 selected locations which must include bow, stern, mid ship, and
boot topping area (area between load line and ballast water line).

A number of traverses for stylus will give ‘n’ readings, hence the Mean Hull Roughness (M.H.R) at that
station is average of

Rt (50) i.e.

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5/29/2020 What is a Hull Roughness Analyzer and How is a Ship’s Hull Roughness Measured?

M.H.R = ∑Rt(50)/ n

There will be ‘m’ stations around the hull of the ship. Hence Average Hull Roughness (AHR) will be
average of Mean Hull Roughness i.e.

A.H.R= ∑M.H.R/ m

Normal Duration for Analyzing Ship’s Hull

When the ship is new, before launching the ship, hull surface roughness is checked which become
a reference value of that ship.

When the ship comes in dry dock and before the maintenance process is started on the hull. This
gives the deterioration value.

Before Undocking to measure or compare the hull after maintenance procedure is completed.

Typical Roughness or A.H.R of a ship when it is new is approx 120 microns.

Due to fouling and deterioration, an 8 year old ship will have A.H.R in the range of 300-400 microns.

The significance of the roughness profile is that increase in the hull roughness will increase the frictional
resistance of the ship. Since this is the major aspect of resistance for a merchant ship, this will increase
the power, fuel consumption and operating cost of the ship.

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About Anish
An ardent sailor and a techie, Anish Wankhede has voyaged on a number of ships as
a marine engineer officer. He loves multitasking, networking, and troubleshooting. He
is the one behind the unique creativity and aesthetics at Marine Insight.

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Comments

Nelson says
JULY 19, 2011 AT 3:30 PM

what is vessel’s enhanced survey profile?

Steven Longueville says

AUGUST 7, 2011 AT 10:55 PM

can be done underwater also by means of divers.

Also classification approved.

Paul Engert says

DECEMBER 18, 2013 AT 8:54 PM

Could you please advise of any roughness analysers which can be used underwater, and
which classification society has approved the process.

hys says
NOVEMBER 20, 2017 AT 1:56 PM

how to measure the hull roughness by means of BSRA procedure?

thanks

Anish says
NOVEMBER 23, 2017 AT 10:15 AM

@Hys: Some details of BSRA measurement: http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/767639.pdf

Volkan Varisli says

MARCH 31, 2018 AT 1:29 PM

Wet measuring may not give true results.Most of the antifoulings will be more soft in the
water.There must be a determination with dry readings and/or maker specs.should be used for
corrections.

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