SOTC's Jack-up Team, image: ABS

By Neville Smith

Asian shipyards are moving into added value offshore fabrication and construction and ABS is aiding the transition through the work of its Offshore Technology Centers (OTCs). With four established around the world, in Korea, Singapore, Brazil, and China, the OTCs work closely with academic institutions, designers, and shipyards to deliver tangible solutions to engineering challenges.

These solutions are fostered from internal research as well as from direct shipyard requests, but all share a common theme: the need for innovation driven by the speed and scale of offshore rig and vessel demand. For the OTCs, the task is to work with the yards to undertake research from which engineering systems can be developed.

Jer-Fang Wu, American Bureau of Shipping

At ABS’ Singapore Offshore Technology Center (SOTC), consultant Jer-Fang Wu says the center has been instrumental in identifying prototype designs from research and developing them into engineering specifics, which in turns leads to classification contracts for ABS. A recent example is work with a local shipyard on a new drillship design.

SOTC is also continuing its research into fracture mechanics, producing a methodology which enables engineers and surveyors to judge more accurately whether cracks at tubular weld joints require immediate attention or whether repairs can be safely deferred until the next dry-docking.

“This work entails developing a system to judge when we should carry out the repair so solutions can be delivered across the lifecycle of an asset,” Wu adds.

The SOTC research programme is in part driven by Wu’s research among his ABS colleagues, tapping Technology and Business Development colleagues and Principal Engineers for potential research topics.

These are a combination of known long-term issues and most are both fundamental and tough problems, which require specialist research to solve. Examples include measuring the stress resulting from insertion of a spudcan into the seabed and the holding capacity of torpedo piles.

Also under study are dynamically-installed anchors including the torpedo piles for Brazilian oil major Petrobras which has its own torpedo design and wants to be able to more accurately predict their performance.

It’s an example of the real operational solution that the OTCs can help deliver, increasing productivity and potentially saving costs.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ever wonder why an aircraft carrier takes so long to build?

Aircraft carriers, and warships in general, are about as complicated as the CPU in your computer, and the Gerald R. Ford, currently under construction at Huntington Ingalls Shipyard, is certainly no exception.  She’s literally been under some form of construction since 2007, and will be the first new class of US aircraft carrier since USS Nimitz was commissioned in May, 1975.

In an effort to increase the efficiency of the $9 billion design/build process for this ship, Huntington Ingalls utilized the latest and most advanced computer tool capabilities and functionalities for visual integration in design, engineering, planning and construction.

Every piece of this ridiculous puzzle (Over 3 million pieces to be exact) was created in full-scale a 3-D model, so technically, the ship has been completed since 2009… at least in the virtual world.  In the real world, at any given time hundreds of designers, engineers, planners and construction representatives were in the model designing, creating and planning every feature of the ship.

Huntington Ingalls notes that the Ford’s data set comprises of 2 terabytes, or 2,000 gigabytes of data.

Part of the design build process is to validate requirements and ensure ship specifications are met, including access, passage, repair, take-downs, removals of components and safe working areas. For the Ford-class, Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding considered sailors with heights in the 95th percentile male to the 5th percentile female, ensuring all operations can be performed without restriction of human size.

Working on the 3-D model. Image courtesy Huntington Ingalls

Consideration of emergency crew wearing various apparatus and the capability of routing injured personnel through the ship also was considered. All these design challenges along with working to maintain the shortest and optimal routes for distributive systems tested the capabilities of the 3-D visualization tools.

At first glance, the Ford hull design may look similar to the Nimitz, however this new ship is brimming with the latest 21st century technology.

Flight deck changes

Flight deck: The island is smaller and moved farther aft than on Nimitz class so there is more area for airplane maintenance and flight deck operations will be faster and safer due to better space utilization

Weapons Elevator: Elevators use moving electromagnetic fields instead of cabling, which allows elevator shaft to use horizontal doors to close off magazines. This reduces manning and maintenance costs.

Flexible Infrastructure: Flexible infrastructure architecture that allows spaces to be adaptable to rapid changes without the use of “hot work.” It eases compartment reconfiguration to support changing missions, maximizes time for technology development prior to equipment installation, and eliminates cost and schedule impacts associated with the traditional conflicts from re-work.

Advanced Arresting Gear: Recovers current and future aircraft, is lighter than the legacy system, software controls, reduce manning.

New technologies

Among the new technologies in the Ford-class are:

• Multifunction radar and volume search radar: Comprised of the SPY-3 X-band MFR (multi function radar), and S-Band VSR (volume search radar), integrates two radars operating on different frequency bands

The electromagnetic catapult system increases efficiency by removing the old steam-powered catapults. Image: HII

Improved efficiency

With the Ford-class, the Navy has made capital investments to reduce cost and maintenance over the carrier’s life span — that’s $5B in total ownership cost savings over the 50-year life of the ship. The improved design of the carrier allows for more efficient operations and requires fewer sailors to man. Among the efficiencies are:

• Steam to electric transition: No catapult steam, no service steam and no steam turbine driven auxiliaries.
• Fewer overall components: A third to a half as many valves, elimination of 70 sea chests, three vs. four aircraft elevators, one vs. two hangar bays.
• Extended drydocking interval: the Ford-class is designed for 12 year intervals
• Improved shipwide air conditioning: Provides lower moisture and dirt levels
• LED Battle Lanterns: The LED light source will be life of ship and the lower power demand will greatly extend lanterns run time per battery. In the Nimitz class, the current bulb has a 100-hour life.
• Electric Water Heaters: Moving away from steam heating for hot potable water will lower the maintenance load and will reduce ships weight by eliminating a piping network that covered the entire ship.
• Better shipboard lighting: High efficiency fluorescent T-8 lighting will be utilized throughout Ford-class ships. The T-8 light produces more light than the legacy T-12 with reduced energy consumption — each bulb will last almost twice as long as the previous lighting system.

Ford-class carriers can be operated with 800 fewer billets than the Nimitz class of carriers.

General Characteristics, Gerald R. Ford class
Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News, Va.
Propulsion: Two nuclear reactors, four shafts
Length: 1,092 feet
Beam: 134 feet, Fligt Deck Width: 256 feet.
Displacement: approximately 100,000 long tons full load.
Speed: 30+ knots (34.5 miles per hour)
Crew: 4,660 (ship, air wing and staff).
Armament: Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile, Rolling Airframe Missile, CIWS.
Aircraft: 75+.

AK Seah, Vice President, Environmental Solutions Group – American Bureau of Shipping

- By Neville Smith

Current high fuel prices and progressive regulation are acting as a two-prong driver for greater energy efficiency among shipowners. On the one hand, owners need designs that are increasingly fuel efficient as bunker costs continue to escalate, but they also understand the need to demonstrate energy efficiency for purposes of regulatory compliance and commercial differentiation.

Asian shipyards have mostly found that ships recently delivered or currently under construction could largely meet the IMO’s Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI), says ABS Vice President, Environmental Solutions Group, Ah Kuan Seah.

“Fundamentally the required EEDI is the average EEDI of existing ships built between 1999 to 2009, so newer ships, which, in general, have had the advantage of more recent and hence improved designs, tend to have better chances of meeting the 2013- 2015 EEDI Phase 0 requirements without re-inventing the wheel,” he says.

But he says Asian shipyards are investing in improving energy efficiency for their new designs with an eye to future requirements. The yards are taking this new requirement ‘very seriously’, and see energy efficiency as the competitive advantage to meet owners’ requirements for more commercially-attractive ships.

The work being undertaken by shipyards can be summarized in three main areas: machinery, propeller and hull form. The machinery aspect could typically include, for example, improving the waste heat recovery system for additional power generation. The propeller aspects may include devices that improve the wake as well as devices that recover energy downstream of the propeller. For the hull itself, further hull form optimisation could be achieved and hull resistance could be reduced with application of low friction coatings.

“A combination of these measures would potentially improve the ship’s energy efficiency enough to meet the EEDI Phase 1 requirements, which are 10% tougher than Phase 0,” adds Mr Seah. “More research and development is needed to make further improvements to meet the Phase 2 requirements and beyond. There are many emerging technologies on the horizon, but more work is needed on their development before they become widely available.”

Looking further ahead, shipyards and engine manufacturers are examining ways to optimise ship and engine designs across multiple operating speeds. The current practice is to design engines and ships for idealized conditions, which in practice the ship will hardly ever experience. Intuitively, says Mr Seah, ships should be designed and optimized for actual but variable operational conditions. Such a design approach could well be one of the means to achieve a more energy efficient ships of the future.

Livestock carrier design, image: Groot Ship Design

KUALA LUMPUR – A unique contract was signed yesterday between Dutch naval architecture firm, Groot Ship Design, South Korea’s Sungdong shipyard, and Malaysian shipowner PBHH/BH, for the design and delivery of two types of livestock carriers.

Groot Ship Design created two concept designs for Sungdong, a design for the transport of 7000 cows (Livestock carrier 7000) and a design for the transport of 11000 cows (Livestock carrier 11000). These designs are to be further completed in the coming months. Groot Ship Design shall also provide a large part of the basic engineering for the Korean shipyard.

Of each type the Korean yard will build 5 vessels for PBHH/BH Livestock. Sungdong requested Groot Ship Design to deliver the design for each type because of the knowledge and experience in livestock carriers and the innovating bow design of the Groot Cross-Bow©.

For Groot Ship Design this is the biggest design order so far since the company started at the end of 2005.

The shipbuilding contracts were signed between BPHH/BH live stock and Sungdong.  Groot Ship Design and Bureau Veritas have been contracted separately by Sungdong to provide design/engineering and ship classification for these vessels respectively.

For PBHH this is an important step forward into the world market for live animal transportation with special attention for the welfare of the animals. PBHH is a major player in the production of halal food, the new fleet of livestock carriers will further strengthen its position in that market. For Groot Ship Design this is a new milestone with regards to further internationalisation (after Europe, China, and India, now Korea) and the size of the designs. The largest of the two designs, the livestock carrier 11000, is with respect to the main dimension, so far now, the largest ship designed by Groot Ship Design.

Of each design, 5 ships will be built (10 ships in total). Livestock is shipped from Sudan to Malaysia and as return cargo frozen chicken will be carried, each ship will therefore load 100 pcs of 40ft reefer containers.  Groot Ship Design is honoured to receive this great order which will offer work to 20-25 specialists and designers for the rest of the remaining year. Sundong is the no 5 shipyard of Korea with approx 8500 employees and one the most modern shipyards of its kind.

E Class Sea Eagle catamaran

Sauter Carbon Offset Design (SCOD) says they have come up with an alternative design for the USCG’s new Sentinel Class Fast Response Cutters (FRC) that could potentially cut fuel consumption in half while at the same time increase cruising speed by up to 10% through solar power and a catamaran hull form.

The design was submitted through the USCG’s Unsolicited Proposal Program that allows companies or individuals to submit ideas for products or services that may be of interest to the Coast Guard.

SCOD says that the E-Class Search and Rescue Sea Eagle, as the design is called, uses half as much fuel to go 10% faster than the USCG Sentinel Class Fast Response Cutters’ currently in use and under construction.  In addition to the fuel savings and increased speed, the Sea Eagle will be equipped with a waterjet propulsion system, dynamic positioning, and “small wave making” technology to minimize harm to the marine ecology.

Instead of the Sentinels tier 2 diesel engines that generate 11,500hp, the Sea Eagle will generate a total of 5,000hp through a Solar Hybrid propulsion package that includes cleaner MTU Tier 4i diesels.  With less than half the fuel consumption of the Sentinel Class FRC’s, the catamaran Sea Eagle’s greater overall efficiency delivers a maximum speed of 32 knots, as opposed to 29 knots.

In “silent electric mode”, SCOD says the SEA Eagle can navigate inland water ways and dock with zero emissions. Plugged in, her solar cells can harness and return over 200 MWs of energy to the grid per year, enough power to offset 3,000 nautical miles of Carbon Neutral cruising at 18 knots. As a Certified Carbon Offset Project, SCOD says the SEA Eagle can reduce GHG emissions by as much as 12,000 tons per year.

Energy from the grid or captured from her 100KW solar array is stored in a Lloyds approved Corvus 2MW Lithium UPS and the 16 ton weight of the batteries also serves as the energy generating motion dampening system.  Combining this with the self leveling T-Foils in each hull greatly improves the ride, related safety aspects and the accuracy of the stabilized remotely operated 25 mm chain gun, and the four crew operated .50 caliber machine guns.

“Government Agencies like the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security while protecting us can also play a major roll in protecting our way of life for future generations,” says Richard Sauter, owner of SCOD. “They have the opportunity, if not a duty, to do this by insuring that only the best examples of fuel efficient Eco Conscious Vessels are to be found in our Coast Guard and Navy.

Considering the USCG has already called for the design and construction of up to 34 new “Sentinel Class” Fast Response Cutters (FRC) from Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, LA, SCOD faces an uphill battle if they plan on getting the concept E Class Sea Eagle into production.

The first Sentinel Class was recently commissioned in Miami.

This dedicated rule book for self-elevating units clearly provides the specific considerations required for jackups to prevent interpretations that may lead to imposing additional requirements without any safety benefits. These considerations are especially relevant for jackups, taking into account their dual fixed/ floating nature.

DNV’s Offshore Class Product Manager, Michiel van der Geest, explains that “we have focused on making a user friendly rule book with clear guidance. I believe that the designers and yards will now find it much easier to interpret jackup requirements. Additionally, the entire classification concept is described in a concise manner, so that full compliance can be achieved. Besides the new format the
rule book, most importantly, it is based on a deep understanding of the jackup segments needs and standards. “Strength and material requirements have been aligned with proven market standards. In addition, operational procedures are tailored to specific operational profiles in order to minimize interference with production schedules,” van der Geest says.

Further, the book introduces the new voluntary notation Enhanced Systems (ES). This notation covers industry’s needs to demonstrate safety and reliability beyond compliance. “It is based on our accumulated knowledge and experience and contains requirements for acceptable design solutions,” he concludes.

Image: HHI

As the fuel consumption efficiency of a ship is becoming a primary concern for shipowners, the length of the hull and the operating speed of the main engine decrease while the breadth increases. The height of the deckhouse is also increased to provide navigation visibility for large container carriers. Moreover, reinforced vibration regulations come into effect in accordance with shipowners ’ demand for comfortable cabins. Such changes make the existing anti-vibration solutions ineffective and thus a new low vibration design and vibration control scheme are necessary. Hyundai Maritime Research Institute (HMRI) has developed various technologies satisfying lower vibration limit (3 mm/s) including low-vibration deckhouse design, the exact evaluation of major excitation forces, and the development of vibration control devices.

Low-vibration Deckhouse Design
Elaborate parametric study was carried out to determine the optimal shape of the deckhouse in order to reduce vibrations. Different dimensions for the deckhouse were used according to various main engines. In addition, the wall lay-ups and supporting structures
were modified to control the rigidity of the deckhouse. Such design changes were applied to entire vessels such as VLCC, VLOC, VLOO, bulk carrier and containerships. It was found that the vibration level decreased drastically compared to that of the existing deckhouse design.

Evaluation of Major Excitation Force
Among various ship-borne excitation forces, thrust variation due to main engine explosion forces were analyzed and identified theoretically and experimentally. Three-dimensional FE analysis technology of the crank and propulsion shaft system was developed to
accurately predict excitation forces due to thrust variation. Then, the excitation forces were measured through semiconductive strain gauges during the sea trial. The measured results were as predicted. From the analytical model, design guide for a propulsion shaft
was also proposed to minimize thrust variation.

Vibration excitation forces are transmitted from the main engine and the propeller to the deckhouse through the hull structure. The transmission was identified analytically by using vibration intensity analysis technique which can accurately show the transmission paths of the vibration energy in the hull structure. As the transmission and dissipation paths of vibration energy were identified, effective low vibration design was obtained.

Development of Vibration Control Device
The vibration compensator to generate active control force was developed to reduce the vibration of the deckhouse and main engine. The developed compensator was designed to adjust control force minutely. The optimal vibration control scheme which realizes the total
automatic control without any operator was built and applied to commercial vessels in order to validate its effectiveness.

The top bracing with high damping capacity is being developed as a vibration control device for the deckhouse and main engine. The stiffness and damping of the commercial top bracings were identified experimentally for the performance evaluation of the current top bracings. Design parameter sensitivities were analyzed through the simulation of hydraulic components and various experiments
were carried out for the validation of the simulation. As a result, the damping performance of the top bracing was improved.

From the study conducted by HMRI, low-vibration design and countermeasures for newly developed ships were constructed systematically. Owing to this study, HHI has acquired core technologies to guarantee the vibration level of ship’s deckhouse below the lower vibration limit of 3 mm/s.

It’ll take about 5 hours,  but it IS possible according to the folks at Harris Pye.

Harris Pye reports that it has successfully used a 3D scanner to survey the engine room of Neva River (ex Celestine River), a ‘K’ Line-owned LNG carrier, for pre-ballast water system CAD design, selection and installation.

The project involved a full 3D scan of the engine room in order to ascertain the best system for a ballast water treatment installation. The scan enables Harris Pye engineers to create three-dimensional images of the entire engine room, and create various ballast water treatment models.

The entire engine room survey reportedly took less than 5 hours and works by using lasers to gather data which is then processed by naval architects through AutoCAD in order to create multiple walkthrough 3D models from the scans.

“By being able to create walkthrough 3D models, we can save them an enormous amount of time and money, because the modelling allows us to test different options with absolute accuracy,” said Harris Pye’s new products technical manager, Ben Wise.

“It negates all the usual time-consuming survey and design work. And when the best solution has been selected, we know with absolute certainty that the equipment will fit perfectly, down to the last bolt. This is of prime importance aboard vessels where space is at a premium.”

“Ultimately this allows us to do a complete ‘virtual test’ – to assess the system prior to workshop or site fabrication – which negates the risk of fabrication errors and the ensuing high costs for our clients.”

Signet Weatherly, image courtesy Robert Allan Ltd.

Signet Weatherly is the latest RAmparts 3200 Class ASD from the design board of Robert Allan Ltd.

Recently delivered to her proud owner, Signet Maritime Corporation, the tug will be based in Corpus Christi, Texas and is named after the winner of the 1962 America’s Cup.  The new vessel will enhance Signet’s Gulf operations, providing ship-assist capabilities along with long range towing.

The RAmparts 3200 design is configured for low-manning operation, with a high standard of machinery automation. The vessel is equipped with both a bow winch for ship assist work and a stern winch and tow pins for towing and other operations over the stern, as well as for offshore duties. Extended fuel capacity gives her extended range for towing rigs in and around the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean.

Signet Weatherly was built in accordance with American Bureau of Shipping notation:

•  A1 Tug, Towing Vessel,  AMS Unrestricted Voyages

Particulars of this tug are as follows:

Tank Capacities are:

On trials, Signet Weatherly met or exceeded all performance expectations, with the following results:

The vessel has been outfitted to the highest standards for a crew of up to 10 people. The large main deckhouse contains a spacious galley and mess, and 2 cabins with shared en suite WC for the Chief Engineer and Master. The lower deck contains 3 crew cabins, WC and 2 showers, a galley store and a deck stores room. The wheelhouse is designed for maximum all-round visibility with forward and aft control stations providing maximum visibility to both fore and aft deck working areas.

The deck machinery is comprised of a 50HP Markey DEPC-48 Render / Recover Hawser Winch on the foredeck with a brake holding power of 300,000 lbs. Line pull is rated at 15,000lbs at 100 ft/min and 3,500lbs at 200 ft/min. Maximum stall pull is 40,000lbs. Capacity is 500 ft of 9″ circ. line.

Located on the aft deck is a 100HP Markey TESD-32 side-by-side double drum towing winch with a brake holding capacity of 400,000lbs. and carrying 2300 ft of 2″ dia wire. Maximum line pull at stall is 135,000lbs., with rated capacities of 92,000lbs at 30 ft/min and 11,000lbs at 90 ft/min.

There is a Smith Berger 12T-214 tow pin / roller / hold-down block integrated into the bulwarks aft.

Propulsion comprises a pair of MTU 16V 4000M60 diesel engines, each rated 1760kW at 1800 rpm, driving a pair of Niigata ZP31 Z-drives with 102.4 inch diameter fixed pitch propellers.

The electrical plant comprises 2 Northern Lights M1066 diesel gen-sets, each with power output of 130 kW.

Ship-handling fenders at the bow comprise of one tier of 32 inch hollow rubber fenders with a lower run of 14 inch “W” block fenders. A 14 x 14 inch hollow “D” fender provides protection at the main and foc’sle deck sheer lines, and 14 inch “W” block type fendering is used at the stern.