Hull Shape Optimization Reduces Ferry Fuel Consumption by 13%

With climate challenges top of mind, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is taking an ever more active role in establishing a more sustainable global fleet. The IMO2023 regulations have entered into force since November 2022. They are set for the shipping industry to meet the target of reducing carbon emissions from international shipping by 40% by 2030 and 70% by 2050 versus the 2008 levels.

CFD can play an active role in reaching those challenging goals by providing an accurate understanding of ship performance and showing us where and how to optimize their designs for minimal fuel consumption. The rise of High-Performance Computing (HPC) moreover makes the cost of high-accuracy simulations affordable.

In the customer case example briefly described below, a large passenger ferry company managed to considerably reduce fuel consumption - and save a whopping USD 337,000 per year operating two engines on one boat - by optimizing the hull shape of their vessels with Cadence Fidelity CFD.

The main objective of this particular case was to reduce the required power to maintain the ferries at two different cruise speeds and loading conditions. We also wanted to understand how big of an impact our chosen parameters have on the performance of the vessels. Vessels with varied operational profiles require trade-off analyses due to conflicting objectives, making an engineer’s work more difficult.

The design optimization project was performed using a Rhinoceros/Grasshopper parametric model directly coupled into Fidelity Optimization. A fully automated ferry design optimization was performed to find the global optimum of the weighed power, making trade-off studies easier. Thanks to the C-Wizard, no time needed to be spent preparing test cases; we could go straight to the optimization part. The propeller’s influence was studied with an enriched actuator disk model, enabling us to perform self-propulsion simulations directly. And data mining helped us decrease the CPU time needed for the database by validating surrogate accuracy.

The study resulted in an optimized ferry hull design offering an average power reduction of 14.08% and a fuel reduction of 13.53% for the given cruise speeds and loading conditions. The ferry company calculated a saving of USD 337,000 per year for two engines per vessel.

Do you want to learn more about ship design optimization for saving fuel consumption?

Watch the on-demand webinar "Making the Shipping Sector Greener by Leveraging CFD"