Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Luebeck-Travemuende, Germany
© 2004 Schiffbautechnische Gesellschaft e.V.
1)
Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg
Hamburg, Germany
2)
Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft
Flensburg, Germany
If RoRo- Ships are benchmarked with Container • RoRo customers typically operate their ships
Ships, it is to be noticed that the efficiency of Con- themselves instead of putting them in the char-
tainer vessels has boosted during the last ten years ter market, which means that they have a nat-
duet to market demands. This is due to the fact ural interest in improved products. A RoRo-
that Container Ship development was in the focus operator is more willing to accept a price in-
of most operators and shipyards, whereas RoRo- De- crease for a technological improvement of his
signs seemed to change gradually only. This may ships if the pay back rate is sufficient.
be illustrated by the following example: A typical
RoRo- Ship could be characterized by roughly 3200 As mentioned above, there is much potential to in-
lane meters, which is equivalent to the carriage of ap- crease the efficiency of RoRo- Ships, which holds for
pure freight RoRos as well as for RoPax ships. De-
signwise (this paper will not treat developments in
producion technology that lead to price reductions)
two simple measures have to be taken:
The same basic principles which have been found for The development of a fast 26 kn, 140 m RoPax ferry,
RoRo- Ships are also valid for RopPax vessels: The which follows the same basic principle, goes one step
key goal is to manage higher cargo input by verti- further in this direction.
cal extension of the ship. But for RoPax vessels,
the damage stability requirements are more complex 2.3 Increasing the speed of the ships
due to the fulfillment of SOLAS requirements com- Here, the key goal is to design hulls that have a min-
bined with Stockholm agreement. Based on detailed imum resistance. Today, numerical tools are avail-
cost/benefit investigations carried out at Flensburger able to predict the flow aroud ships. If the periphe-
Schiffbau- Gesellschaft, it was found out that for op- rial processes such as grid generation, post process-
timum cargo input, it is better to get rid of the lower ing, hullform changes etc. are automated according
hold and to introduce a complete additional vehicle to the design process demands, a complete calcula-
deck on top. Although at the first moment it does tion cycle takes not more than a few minutes. The
not sound efficient to carry void spaces below the ve- CFD-results allow to do optimizations that can not
hicle deck instead of cargo, there are the following be performed with model tests alone. Using these
striking arguments: tools in a consequent way, remarkable improvements
are achieved.
• The lane meters gained by the lower hold are
inferiour to those on the vehicle deck, because This is demonstrated by fig. 3. There, four Ro/Ro-
due to the B/5 longitudinal bulkhead, the lower Designs are presented in a chronological way, from
hold becomes narrow, making handling of the left to right. Far left, the design of a typical RoRo-
trailers inefficient. Ship is presented which is udes as benchmark case.
The wave elevation shows good interference along the
• The fabrication costs per lane meter are sig- hull, but a remarkable amount of stern generated
nificantly higher for the lower hold, because waves is left in the wake, which are hard to evalu-
much cost intensive sub supplier parts have to ate by model tests. These transversal transom waves
be used (RoRo- equipment, HVAC, etc). If the ared the dominating part of the wave resistance, and
shipyard is efficient in steel production, an ad- consequently, this design has high power demand at
ditional vehicle deck on top is much more cost service speed of approx. 21.1 knots.
Figure 3: Hull Performance of five Ro/Ro-Designs in deep water
This is demonstrated by fig. 3. There, four Ro/Ro- main task of the design for Turkish owner UND us-
Designs are presented in a chronological way, from ing a thouroghly optimized aftbody including a trim
left to right. Far left, the design of a typical RoRo- wedge. The application of Bernuolli’s Basic Law to
Ship is presented which is udes as benchmark case. a RoRo- aftbody results in the fact that if the aft-
The wave elevation shows good interference along the body is designed for a minimum of transom gener-
hull, but a remarkable amount of stern generated ated waves, more longitudinal waves will occur. So
waves is left in the wake, which are hard to evalu- an overall optimum has to be found.
ate by model tests. These transversal transom waves
It can clearly be seen that the wave pattern is more
are the dominating part of the wave resistance, and
favourable over all and consequently, the power was
consequently, this design has high power demand at
significantly reduced. The next generation of RoRo-
service speed of approx. 21.1 knots. Consequently, a
Vessels, the single screw driven top-deck vessels built
significant amount of power can be saved by simple
for Danish owner DFDS show that a clever hull con-
additional measures: At present, it has become pop-
cept can also be developed for single screw solutions.
ular to retrofit exsiting ships with duck tails (which
The wave elevations show that also this vessel has
do also elongate the ship) or trim wedges or a com-
a low resistance and the service speed could be in-
bination. The CFD- calculation shows why these
creased further. The vessel far right demonstrates
measures are quite efficient: The main part of the
that CFD is most benefitial the higher the power de-
wave resistance (the transom generated waves) are
mand: The innovative hull concept of a 140m, 26
reduced. We have tested a possible retrofitting with
knot RoPax ferry requires 26100 kW main engine
a trim wegde of the left design in our numerical tow-
power at 26 knots service speed. To achieve this,
ing tank and the results plotted in the following fig-
more than 250 hull form versions have been tested
ure clearly show the benefit of these measures.
in the numerical towing tank and even the smallest
details have been thouroghly optimized. Compared
to the benchmark hull, the gain is evident.
Design as built Retrofitting of Trim Wedge
The avoidance the transom generated waves was a • Excessive vibrations and/ or noise
• Poor seakeeping behaviour (speed losses, exces- Further improvements are possible, so the final val-
sive accelarations, discomfort) ues will be abt. 1.3 / 0.3 kPa, respectively. For the
customer, these excellent values are of high econom-
• Poor Manoevering (yaw checking, turning, ical interest: As the vessels have to operate under
crabbing) shallow water conditions, the speed can be kept at
high values without having comfort problems.
Whenever one of these topics occurs, the situation
becomes difficult for both the shipowner and the
shipyard (and in some cases also for the sub sup-
plier), because the operational target is not clearly
stated in the spec and therefore subject to differ-
ent interpretations. And in most cases, if one of the
Pressure Pulse Overview
above mentioned problems occurs, major, cost in- 4
tensive modifications are the result. These can be
avoided if the behaviour of the ship (or a system) is 3.5
2
Before a propeller design is analyzed in the towing
tank and the HYKAT, numerical pre-optimizations 1.5
Angle in Deg
2
0.5
parametric rolling. The Blume-Criterion is used to
0
18 18.5 19 19.5 20
Ship Speed in Knots
20.5 21 21.5 22 judge whether a ship is save in a certain seaste or
Drift angle in Degree
Rudder angle in Degree
Heeling angle in Degree
not. As results, we get permissible wave heights as
10/10−Zig/Zag, v=22.1 kn function of ship speed and encounter angle.
Wind: 20 kn
Fig. 8 gives an overview about the improvements
7.3 Deg
5.4 Deg
7.7 Deg
7.1 Deg that can be achieved using such design techniques:
The left picture shows the results for the initial de-
20/20−Zig−Zag, v=22.1 kn
sign of a 200 m, 25 knots RoPax - ferry. It can
Wind: 20 kn
clearly be seen that in following seas and slow speeds,
14.8 Deg 13.2 Deg 15.9 Deg
13.3 Deg
the vessel suffers from parametric rolling. It capsizes
in waves of approx. 4m wave height if wave length
equals LbP. With the help of the simulation, the phe-
nomena that lead to capsizing can be acessed by the
Figure 7: Zig-Zag tests and course keeping action for designer and without impeding speed power perfor-
UND RoRo-Vessels, Hull No. 713 mance or other governing criteria, a hull form can be
designed that is safe against the risk of capsizing, as
fig. 8, right, demonstrates.
Fig. 7 shows the results of the numerical optimiza-
tion: The overshoot-angles calculated by the simu-
lation have been reached during trial trip with an
accuracy of approx 0.5 Degree. Compared to the
IMO-manoevering recommendations, the overshoot
angles are drastically smaller. The rudder action re-
quired for course keeping was found to be approx. 0.5
degree rudder action per minute, as performed by the
autopilot during the trial trip. In heavy wether, the
course keeping ability can be jugded from the result-
ing drift and rudder angles at yawing and swaying
equilibrium (Fig. 7, top right) wich can also be de-
rived from numerical simulations. At 40 knots trans-
verse wind speed, ship speed 21.5 knots, the result-
ing drift angle is less than 2.5 Degree and less than Figure 8: Evaluation of parametric rolling. Left: Ini-
3.5 degree rudder angle are required for course keep- tial Design of 200 m, 25knot RoPax Ferry, right: De-
ing. These low values, leading to a low additional sign optimized for safety against capsizing
resistance, have been achieved by systematically op-
timizing hull form and manoevering devices for good
course keeping ability.
4 Conclusions
The competition in the shipbuilding industry forces
shipyards to increase the competitiveness of their
products as well as their productivity. If European
Shipyards want to compete against the Far East, this
. can only be done by intelligent products, which re-
quire intelligent engineering priniples and powerful
Figure 9: Seakeeping Evaluation of a ferry convcer- design tools. On the other hand, these new design
sion. Left: original design, right: Modification to processes require new engeneering skills: The under-
fulfill Stockholm Agreement. Blume- Criterion, wave standing of physical phenomena related to a specific
length eqals LbP design and the proper modelling of these phenom-
ena by numerical algorithms and, of course, the ad-
equate interpretation of the results. Within this re-
Fig. 9 shows the comparison of a ferry before and spect, Europe has a clear advantage due to a very
after conversion. The original design shows a typical active and ongoing research and development infras-
behaviour of such kind of vessel. Only quartering tructure. Shipyards have to cooperate with the re-
seas can cause problems to the ship and they can be searchers and to establish research networks to ex-
avioded by the crew. The behaviour of the coverted ploit the research results. Within the frame of this
vessel looks significantly different: Now, also head network, Universities and other research institutes
seas lead to excessive rolling with negative conse- are the institutions that develop the basic tools to
quences for the ecomforet on board. Although the be applied by the industry.