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Ballasts

Ballasted model components enable to define a cylinder of constant internal area Sint and to set its liquid filling ratio as a function of time A new ballast object may be created either from the Model menu or by clicking the icon.

The ballast is positioned in the 3D frame using the same method as for a buoy object.

When clicking on the object, the position of the center point appears as well as the drawing. The ballast is a vertical pipe centred on the reference node with by default a length of 8m and a diameter of 8m. If the Reference node is clamped to a fairlead, the pipe takes the fairlead direction.

Each ballast component is characterized by a number of data, which can be split as follows.

  • General data : to specify the name of your ballast element, the position of the ballast element centre expressed in the global coordinate system, and whether the ballast element is free or linked with another object from your model.

  • Drawing : to define all the geometrical parameters used to display the ballast element in the 3D view window.

  • Properties : to define the mechanical and hydrodynamic properties of the ballast element.