Additional method for the inclining experiment

An inclining experiment is executed to establish light ship weight and its center of gravity.

SARC has had a module to run calculations required and generate a test report for decades. And even such simple module has been developed quite a bit. The current module Incltest can be used even if test weights are variable (as may occur when ballast water is used for test weights), if test weights come on board after the draft measurements, and if the waterline is not continuous. Note that in the last case additional draft measurements may be defined to give better results for non-constant KM values.

However, things are not always that difficult. We have therefore deemed it a good idea to implement a conventional method for the inclining experiment.
This method is not our invention, we have simply followed the IMO recommendation to the letter:

• The measured heeling angles for all devices used are presented in a graph:
  tan(φ) against moments per pendulum / inclining sensor / tube.
• The G’M value will be calculated with linear regression (least squares method) from these measurements.

Some features not explicitly listed in the IMO recommendation:

• For moment = 0, the heeling angle found in the draft survey is used.
• The intersection of the calculated curve with tan(φ) = 0 is used to calculated TCG.
• Per device, any measured heeling angle can be rejected if deemed invalid. Regression will simply use one less value.
• The tube is added as a measuring device.

We trust that the ‘conventional method’ will be easier understood than our ‘non-conventional’ method.
For this reason it is selected by default for new projects.