New methods shall provide lighter and more energy efficient hulls

A Lighthouse pre-study, Dynamic design of ships, has led to a collaborative project between SSPA (project manager), Chalmers, KTH and Stena, which the Swedish Transport Administration finances by SEK 3.2 million. The project intends to conduct joint research on methods for dynamic ship dimensioning, and to enhance understanding of dynamic loads on ships, ie how wind and wave loads affect the structural response.

From the pre-study:

"There is a big potential to develop ships for more efficient transport at sea by optimize the construction to reduce weight and steel to lower the cost for building and operate the ship. To ensure that legislations are fulfilled with respect to structural strength, seaworthiness, environment and safety at sea more knowledge is required to understand how requirements and solutions affect the complex construction of the ship.

Today there is a lack of guidelines and regulations which do not fully account for the interaction between the wave loads and the structural response with enough safety margin with respect to the structural strength. This pre-study was initiated and sponsored by Lighthouse with the goal to establish a joint collaboration under the framework of Lighthouse with participants from the academia and the industry with representation from the hydrodynamic and structural community in Sweden. Another goal was to define the project “Dynamic Design of Ships” and apply for external R&D funding in order to pursue the project. A collaboration between Chalmers University of Technology, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SSPA Sweden AB and Stena Teknik has been established."

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Read the pre-study: Dynamic design of ships