Master Thesis

Thursday, December 5, 2019 - 10:17

If you are enrolled at a Swedish technical university and would like to carry out your Master Thesis project at SSPA, please send us an application before 15 December, using the provided form. Note that you will not be an employee during the thesis work.

CFD investigation of wind powered ships under extreme condition

Wind powered ships could be a feasible way to reduce the fossil fuel emission from shipping. In an ongoing research project, Wallenius Marine in cooperation with SSPA, KTH and Chalmers, a wind powered car carrier concept is being developed. The sails of this concept are planned to be very large rigid wings. Under normal operation, the flow over the wings will be attached. In some extreme situations, however, the wings may have such large angle of attack that the flow is partly or completely de-attached (stalled). A situation like that can potentially lead to large unsteady forces which may be harmful to the ship in terms of structural integrity and risk of capsizing.

In this project, the task is to investigate these types of conditions using CFD. As the flow is largely separated, unsteady scale-resolving simulations needs to be performed, using a DES-type simulation methodology. Simulations will be performed in OpenFOAM. The goal is to study the most severe conditions and describe the dynamic forces acing on the rig, identifying the most hazardous behaviour for the ship.

We expect two master students supervised by both Chalmers M2 Division of Marine Technology and SSPA. The project is open to students in MSc programmes related to either Naval Architecture or Fluid dynamics. Preferably, the project would start mid January 2020 and run to June, but this can be adjusted if needed.

For more information please contact Sofia Werner.

The crew’s perspectives on wind powered cargo vessels’ operations

The shipping industry is now under a strong pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions towards long term sustainability goals. For example, the IMO agreement of reducing CO2 emissions with 50% until 2050 have shown efficient to raise climate change issues on shipping companies’ agendas. To reach such targets, new technology needs to be developed and implemented. One upraising technology area, which has received great attention recently, is the new generation of wind power technology on cargo vessels. Examples exists of wind power assistance by using flettner rotors or suction wings, or fully wind driven vessels by using dyna rigs or wing sails. The use of wind power has a great potential of reducing the CO2 emission to a large extent.

Taking a crew perspective however, using wind power technology on cargo vessels will create other operational conditions compared to conventional shipping operations. When developing, and designing, new wind powered cargo vessel it is therefore of crucial importance to take into account the effects on the operations and how the crew on board will be able to operate the vessel.

The purpose of the master thesis is to explore the crew’s perspective on wind powered cargo vessels and the sailing operations. Interesting questions to raise are: What are operational effects from applying different wind powered technologies? What expectations and requirements have the crew on the operations? What operational performance is expected? How could the operational performance be measured?

A qualitative approach is required for the task. Primary data collection is to interview operational staff on shipping companies. It is of interest to both include shipping companies that have recently implemented wind power technology on cargo vessels, as well as those companies that have not yet, but have plans to do so soon. The master thesis will be part of a newly started Interreg North Sea project, WASP-Wind Assisted Sailing Propulsion, with partners in Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Denmark and UK.

We are looking for two students (one thesis) in the area of Maritime Management (or other relevant programmes) to take part in tasks related to ongoing research. The purpose of the master thesis is to explore the crew’s perspective on wind powered cargo vessels and the sailing operations.

For more information please contact Vendela Santén.