Reference project in the

Research project on the reduction of hull resistance of vessels by means of hydrofoiling

Researching the applicability of adaptive and instrumented CFRP foils to reduce hull resistance

This research project is an alliance consisting of 14 alliance part­ners: 12 compa­nies, 9 of which are SMEs, and 2 research insti­tu­tions. The goal of the alliance is to advance the devel­op­ment and market launch of emis­sion-free urban mobility solu­tions on water.

The task

The RUBIN Alliance Emis­sion-free elec­tri­fied maritime urban trans­port” - in short E2MUT aims to create Green ener­gies for blue trans­porta­tion.” The aim of the alliance is to promote the devel­op­ment and market intro­duc­tion of emis­sion-free urban mobility solu­tions on the water.

A special focus is on the urban” sector, i.e. trans­port within cities and between neigh­bouring cities and resi­den­tial areas. Increasing urban­i­sa­tion and indi­vidual traffic are leading to congested roads in urban areas. This trend must be coun­tered by inte­grating water­ways and, in the process, elim­i­nating a large part of the pollu­tant and noise emis­sions through emis­sion-free propul­sion systems based on batteries and hydrogen.

The project part­ners

This research project is an alliance of 14 part­ners: 12 industry compa­nies, nine of which are SMEs, and two research insti­tu­tions. The majority of the German alliance part­ners are concen­trated in the Rostock area. In addi­tion, there is one partner each from Stral­sund, Hamburg (ar engi­neers) and Munich. The alliance thus repre­sents a broad, compe­tence spec­trum of the maritime industry and envi­ron­men­tally friendly propul­sion systems for maritime appli­ca­tions.

The approach

Successful imple­men­ta­tion of emis­sion-free elec­tro­mo­bility requires an inte­grated inter­dis­ci­pli­nary approach to the devel­op­ment of inno­v­a­tive solu­tions. To this end, the E2MUT research project as a system is divided into three fields of compe­tence:

  • Mobility and infra­struc­ture
  • Propul­sion systems and energy supply
  • Elec­tric vessels

In the elec­tric vessel field, ar engi­neers GmbH is researching the applic­a­bility of adap­tive and instru­mented CFRP foils for the contin­uous reduc­tion of hull resis­tance.

In ship­building, hydro­foils are connected to the hull under­water and generate a dynamic lift at increasing speed, which lifts the hull out of the water. This addi­tional lift enables the vessel to operate much more effi­ciently at higher speeds.

The instru­men­ta­tion of the foils aims to collect dedi­cated input data for future devel­op­ment projects to enable long-term opti­mi­sa­tion of foil struc­tures and contin­uous struc­tural moni­toring.

Our know-how

The following compe­tences at ar engi­neers are being used and further devel­oped in this research project:

  • Concep­tual design and devel­op­ment of foil systems for hydro­foils
  • CAD design of high-perfor­mance light­weight struc­tures
  • Design, calcu­la­tion and opti­mi­sa­tion of highly stressed composite struc­tures using Ansys soft­ware
  • Devel­op­ment of an algo­rithm for the calcu­la­tion of hydro­dy­namic loads of hydro­foils using the Python program­ming language
  • Devel­op­ment of algo­rithms for contin­uous struc­tural moni­toring of sensor-inte­grated composite compo­nents

Our way

Our holistic view of the project means we see where the poten­tial of light­weight design or compo­nent opti­mi­sa­tion can be realised and also ensures the best possible coor­di­na­tion of the project part­ners. Through the adept use and further devel­op­ment of tools and methods we are able to make an impor­tant contri­bu­tion to achieving the project’s objec­tives.

Project part­ners

Claas Schröder
Devel­op­ment & Calcu­la­tion Engi­neer

Back­ground: M.Sc. mechan­ical engi­neering with a focus on calcu­la­tion and simu­la­tion

Claas‘ favorite project:

I like being part of finding solu­tions for sustain­able mobility concepts.

The partic­i­pa­tion of ar engi­neers in the research project E2MUT (emis­sion-free elec­tri­fied maritime urban trans­port) enables us young engi­neers to conduct research in the field of climate-neutral mobility concepts and to become part of finding solu­tions so that we will not have to do without this mobility, which is so impor­tant for all of us, and the freedom and autonomy it brings in the future.

Through close coop­er­a­tion with regional part­ners such as the Fraun­hofer Insti­tute for Large Struc­tures in Produc­tion Engi­neering IGP, Tamsen Maritim GmbH and torqeedo GmbH, E2MUT creates the basis for using the skills learned and part­ner­ships estab­lished in the project beyond the project itself. Our goal is that the regional market-ready devel­op­ment and produc­tion of modern hydro­foiling vessels has already been initi­ated from the project.

In E2MUT we can use and further develop our core know-how in the area of calcu­la­tion and opti­mi­sa­tion of highly stressed fibre composite struc­tures. At the same time, we are devel­oping new compe­tences in the areas of ship design, foil adap­tivity, calcu­la­tion of hydro­dy­namic loads, inte­gra­tion of propul­sion systems, instru­men­ta­tion and struc­tural moni­toring. 

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