The tools currently used in design of offshore vessels have a potential for being applied in the design of merchant vessels. Despite this, design for a balanced set of operational conditions is still at the development stage even for offshore vessels. Hydrodynamic performance of ships and propulsion systems, with special emphasis on operation in waves, will be specially addressed in WP 2. Model scale experiments and full-scale data will be utilized for validation of emission reductions to explore effects and increase the knowledge related to ship system performances. Focus will be put on development of simplified numerical methods and multi-criteria optimization schemes. Advanced CFD models (computational fluid dynamics) will be used.

Objective

 Identify potential for energy savings by means of hull and propulsion optimization, and apply and introduce novel approaches to improve energy efficiency.

Gaps

Improved prediction methods are needed in order to make optimization in realistic operating conditions a reality.

To achieve the ambitious emission reduction targets outlined by the IPCC, radically new ways of designing and operating ships are required.

The lack of reliable measurements and data post-processing methods of the performance of sailing ships makes optimization of the operation of a ship challenging. Improved analysis methods to reduce the amount of data and remove spurious effects of environmental conditions are required

Research tasks

Develop tools and methodologies for efficient performance prediction taking wind, waves, maneuvering and other aspects of realistic operational scenarios into account.

Develop tools and methodologies for optimization of ships and propulsions.

Develop solutions and identify potential for fuel savings by utilizing wind and waves as sources of propulsion energy.

Develop and validate efficiency-improving devices for hulls and propulsions.

Develop methods to analyze data collected from ships in operation to extract knowledge of their hydrodynamic performance. This task comprise exploitation of large amounts of data from sensors and real-time monitoring, data reduction, filtering out effects of environmental conditions and other “noise” sources and methods to extract aggregated data from huge amounts of measurements.

Develop methods and tools for operator guidance related to optimization of operation with respect to fuel consumption and economy.

Reduction of frictional resistance, through outer-bottom coating technologies, air lubrication and similar techniques.

Apply the methods outlined in the abovementioned research tasks for development of new designs in order to prove the energy savings potential