ANALYSIS OF PRESENT-DAY AND PROSPECTIVE BALLAST SYSTEMS OF RIVER AND RIVER-SEA VESSELS
The use of ballast on ships is necessary for operating them efficiently. However, the use of liquid ballast entails a number of negative consequences, such as high energy consumption of ballast equipment, over-expenditure of fuel and lubricants, pollution of bodies of water with foreign microorganisms, etc. The traditional methods of solving these problems are not sufficiently efficient for economic reasons. It would be more rational to introduce the principles of ballast-free boat into the practice of shipbuilding. In order to develop such a concept an analysis has been carried out in this article of present-day and prospective ballast systems of river and river-sea vessels.