defos

For many years ships have been operating at only two loading conditions, design condition and ballast condition. Developments in the work economy have changed operational profiles of ships both from a speed point of view as well as larger variations in loading conditions. This makes the traditional practice of designing a ship for maximum speed and loading outdated. Ship designs should be optimised for the operational conditions the ship is expected to encounter.

A ship design should be optimised for the complete matrix of loading, speed and environmental conditions the ship encounters frequently. A number of steps such as understanding the operational conditions, defining a method for contract evaluation and validation of tools for “off-design” conditions have to be made before this approach will become common practice.

As a first step the Design For Sea JIP will focus on understanding the operational conditions of ships with special attention for the environmental conditions a ship encounters. Common day practice account for the environmental conditions using a Sea Margin of 15%. DeFoS will study operational Sea Margins and develop a method to more accurately determine the Sea Margin based on operational area and ship main particulars.