New electric ferries become spearhead of unique virtual design tool
Norway's biggest ferry company Fjord1 has ordered two new ferries from Havyard Design & Solutions. They will be the first to benefit fully from Havyard LAB's new and unique three-step tool to become safer and more environmentally friendly. This could result in considerable savings.
Havyard LAB is now a three-step tool that is unique in a commercial context. It is introduced to allow shipping companies to perfect ship designs step by step. This process will result in a ship that is carefully adapted to its work and the waters in which it will be operating, while also cutting energy consumption, emissions and operating costs. Executive Vice President Stig Magne Espeseth of Havyard Design & Solutions AS (HDS) refers to a recent example where they were considering different design options together with a customer.
‘We simulated the different design options and demonstrated that the customer could reduce the energy consumption significantly by choosing one alternative instead of the other.’
Full simulation
Havyard Design & Solutions has extensive experience of zero-emission ferries after a record series of twelve electric ferry designs. ‘And the next two ferry designs will be perfected using the three-step tool in order to become even safer and more environmentally friendly.’
R&D Manager Kristian Steinsvik explains that during the first round of the three-step tool, you can experiment with hundreds of alternatives to clarify the basic size and framework conditions for the ship. In the next round, the best alternatives have been selected and the process continues with quality assurance and documentation of the variables of the designs that have made it into the ‘final round’. Finally, Havyard LAB is used to run a simulation of a digital twin of the ship in a virtual ocean.
Article continues after photo.
Executive Vice President Stig Magne Espeseth of Havyard Design & Solutions says that shipping companies that can experiment the most, quickest and cheapest during the design phase have the best chance of succeeding in both tender competitions and competition at sea, and that Havyard now has the tool to help them with this. From the left: Executive Vice President Stig Magne Espeseth and R&D Manager Kristian Steinsvik.
Virtual ocean
Steinsvik says that the Havyard LAB has exact weather and wind, current and wave data for different ocean areas around the world that they use to create the most realistic virtual ocean possible depending on where the ship is intended to operate.
‘This is how we create smart ship designs through a process where we simulate the ship's pattern of operations and collect documentation and experience that will normally not be available until the ship has been in actual operations for years.’
Three steps to zero emissions
The three-step Havyard LAB tool gives shipowners an opportunity to test the hull, technology and operations before the ship has even been built. At the same time, Stig Magne Espeseth emphasises the interaction between customer, salesperson, designer and specialists on the new tool as a crucial factor in the development of sustainable designs.
‘Our customers have many choices to make during a design process. The sum of our experience and the new tool enables us to give good, fact-based advice on how to design ships with high value creation and low environmental impact – and the long-term goal is of course zero emissions.’
A win-win situation
Stig Magne Espeseth says that this tool will be useful when it comes to cutting costs and emissions for wellboats and specialist vessels for offshore wind parks as well as ships operating in the transport sector.
‘Shipping companies that can experiment the most, quickest and cheapest during the design phase have the best chance of succeeding in both tender competitions and competition at sea. We now have the tool to help them with this.’
Through a decade of research and development work, including cooperation with Sintef Ocean, Havyard LAB has now arrived at a three-step tool with a digital twin of the ship in a virtual ocean to perfect the ship's design in order to cut energy consumption, emissions and operating costs. Photo: Havyard
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