The role of transport-buying companies for increased shipping – new report
Increasing the share of goods transported by sea has received increasing political interest in Sweden in order to achieve sustainable transports. The benefits of moving goods from land to sea transport are for example less congestion, reduced environmental impact, lower cost for companies sending and receiving goods and improved road safety. Despite this, the share of sea transport is not increasing.
WASP project launched
The Wind Assisted Ship Propulsion (WASP) project has recently been officially approved and launched. This project brings together universities, wind-assist technology providers with ship owners to research, trial and validate the operational performance of a selection of wind propulsion solutions. SSPA is one of the expert partners that will test wind propulsion systems on different types of vessels, routes and sea conditions. WASP is funded by the Interreg North Sea Europe programme.
Testing proof of concept of SEAMAN Online - new paper
Together with Chalmers University of Technology, SSPA has completed a study testing proof of concept of SEAMAN Online™ with students. SEAMAN Online is a novel web-based ship manoeuvring training tool allowing students and professional mariners to practice manoeuvres in ports and confined waters from their personal computers.
Seminar on inland and coastal shipping
How can inland and coastal shipping be used to a greater extent? Recently about 100 participants from industry, academia and the public sector attended a seminar in Gothenburg, focused on how the use of inland and coastal shipping could be increased. The seminar featured three themes: Regions and ports perspective, Logistics solutions and Waterways in urban areas. The speakers included both Swedish and international perspectives.
New electric ferry, Elvy
SSPA has supported Västtrafik, the public transport company in Gothenburg, during the project to build a new ferry with battery-hybrid propulsion. The traffic across the river in central Gothenburg has been a success and the passengers can continue to increase with the new ferry, Elvy. We are looking forward to travel across the river, more silent and with less emissions.
STM Validation Project results
The Sea Traffic Management Validation Project was finished this summer and its final report with the project’s results was recently published. SSPA has been a partner in this project, where the SSPA Route Optimisation Service was developed and integrated into the ECDIS through the Maritime Connectivity Platform and tested with the involved partners and ships. Optimising the route has a strong impact on the operational costs for fuel and it is translated into GHG emission savings.
Wind powered car carrier
In the research project Wind Powered Car Carrier (wPCC) a wind-powered vessel will be developed, from concept to a technical and financially viable design ready to be built within 3-5 years. This project aims to pave the way for a paradigm shift in maritime transport by demonstrating that this new transport concept is possible even in the near future. We do not necessarily need to wait until 2050 to reach IMO's goal of 50% reduction of greenhouse gases.
AIS in maritime research – new paper
A new research article is published in the journal Marine Policy. This paper provides an overview of how Automatic Identification System (AIS) can be used in different areas of maritime research. The researchers have identified and presents ten different research areas in which AIS is used today. In the future they propose making use of AIS data also in other research fields. Many stakeholders can benefit from the research in which AIS data is used.
Route optimisation based on AIS tracks in the Baltic Sea
We present the results of taking stored AIS tracks and optimising their route geometry as well as their speed to minimise fuel consumption, i.e. to minimise the shallow water resistance experienced by each ship. The results show key changes in traffic patterns, specifically fairway shortcuts that could be taken if there are no safety concerns.
Skin Friction database for the maritime sector
We have completed a research project with the aim to gain increased knowledge of the effect a rough surface has on skin friction. This project has also resulted in an interactive tool that can be used to estimate fuel consumption without requiring background knowledge in hydrodynamics. This tool will hopefully contribute to better surface treatment of vessels, that in the end can reduce costs and emission of greenhouse gases.
Implementing S1000D for Swedish military assault and support crafts
How do you continuously manage technical publications for a large fleet of military assault and support crafts? You do this by implementing S1000D, the International Specification for Technical Publications. SSPA supports the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) in several projects with information analysis, data conversion, restructuring, content revisions, and quality assurance.
Defining normal ship behaviour and safety distance to other ships in open waters
To assess how ship domains vary under different geographical settings and in different types of meetings, SSPA performed a case study. Our researchers studied over 600,000 ship encounters at 36 locations around the Swedish coast. The conclusion is that the ship domain has the shape of an ellipse with half axes radii of 0.9 and 0.45 nautical miles in open waters. In contrast to previous research, it has also been discovered that the ship domain is unrelated to the length of the ship.
Thorough model testing required to make cruising in tough environments sustainable
A state-of-the art-vessel is Ulstein’s new exploration cruise vessel design. SSPA was chosen as the hydrodynamic testing partner, which included traditional calm-water towing tank tests and tests in our seakeeping basin. Extensive CFD simulations were performed. An important part of testing was to correlate these calculations with the model tests. Together, we developed a testing programme to assess the behaviour of the vessel in the most typical operating conditions.
Manoeuvring and seakeeping simulations, and the importance of high-quality data
Simulations are an efficient tool for gaining valuable insights for decision-making. To perform high-quality ship simulations, high-quality input data is required. Without good input data, the output from the simulations will not be a reliable source of support for decision-making. Thanks to SSPA’s test facilities, and the development and use of CFD, we have access to extremely good data which supports the simulation models in the SEAMAN Simulation toolbox.
CFD/EFD Combined methods
SSPA leads the ITTC Specialist Committee on Combined CFD/EFD Methods. The purpose of the committee is to initiate and support the process of introducing combined CFD/EFD methods in ITTC’s procedures. By using the best combination, rather than viewing them as competing methods, we can deliver even better predictions. To facilitate the introduction in our community, the Committee has identified several research areas which need to be addressed.
Hull air lubrication: future and challenges
The goal of reducing fuel consumption, enforced by international regulations and high fuel costs, is motivating ship designers to investigate revolutionary ideas or re-visit old techniques and apply them using new technologies. Hull line optimisation and propulsion system improvements are common practice for achieving this goal, but what if we can eliminate resistance (at least partially) at its source.
Research project HyMethShip
The aim of the research project HyMethShip is to drastically reduce emissions and improve the energy efficiency of waterborne transport at the same time. The project will develop and test a system for marine propulsion that is capable of reducing CO2 emissions by more than 97%, using renewable methanol as the energy carrier and implementing pre-combustion carbon capture. The system will be demonstrated onshore at full scale.
Our test facilities
Physical model testing will continue to be an important tool in the process of developing ships and assessing their performance. SSPA has the capability to perform most kinds of model testing in its facilities: the towing tank, the large cavitation tunnel, the seakeeping and manoeuvring basin and combine with computer tests.