Analysis of the Sea Condition on the Patrol Ship Cheonan Sinking Waters

Kim, Kang-Min; Lee, Joong-Woo; Kim, Kyu-Kwang; Kwon, So-Hyung; Lee, Hyung-Ha

Journal of Navigation and Port Research 2010;34(5):349-354.
Published online June 30, 2010.

천안호 침몰해역의 해상조건 분석

김강민, 이중우, 김규광, 권소현, 이형하

Analysis of the Sea Condition on the Patrol Ship Cheonan Sinking Waters

Kang-Min Kim, Joong-Woo Lee, Kyu-Kwang Kim, So-Hyung Kwon, Hyung-Ha Lee

Abstract

Cheonan, Republic of Korea Navy patrol ship sank had happened by an unknown incident in the vicinity of Baekryeongdo southwest 1.6km(1 mile) sea at 21:45 on March 26, 2010. In terms of coastal researcher's point of view, it is meaningful to provide the sea condition of basic data necessary for search and rescue, more detailed predictions and inference data through the numerical simulations. Thus, in this study, we investigated the weather, wave, tide, tidal current, bottom soil conditions, and suspended sediment are investigated at the coast of Baekryeong-Daechung islands. And based on these data, the characteristics of sea conditions were analyzed. The tidal period at the time of incident corresponds between neap tide to mean tide. Until April 3-4 after March 26, the date of incident, the strongest velocity was progressed towards the spring tide. Thus, it was considered to be difficult to search and rescue operations. Also, because the ebb tide was in progress during 21:00 to 22:00, mass transport seems to be prevailed to the southeast. In particular, as the sudden turbulence due to the irregular topography existed was anticipated, we had carried out particle tracking experiment. From this experiment, depending on the situation of flow, the initial movement of the particles were directed to the southeast but it turned out moving towards the offshore based on the long term prediction. Through this result, it is considered that the scope of the search operation should be expanded towards the open sea.

Key Words: Search and rescue;Mass transport;Spring tide;Current;Particle tracking;Numerical experiment