Sea Fever, an ode to Simcenter Amesim variable sea conditions

Poem by John Masefield (and Romain Nicolas)

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to my sea model again, to the induced variable resistance,
To the propulsion system’s countless efforts to make the ship advance:
And all I ask is the new Simcenter Amesim 2020.1 release,
And its variable sea conditions model and other fantastic capabilities.

Well, I’m not sure John Masefield really wrote the last paragraph, but as a true sea lover, he would have been proud of the latest marine-focused Simcenter Amesim features.

Simcenter Amesim variable sea conditions model

Indeed, with Simcenter Amesim 2020.1 comes a much-requested model: variable sea conditions.

Sizing a ship propulsion system based on calm sea conditions is like training for the Everest climb on a parking lot, or designing a car for flat and straight roads, it is over simplistic (“A smooth sea never made a skillful sailor” as we say).

So, we worked on adding resistance to the current hull resistance model by considering 3 phenomena:

• Wind resistance
• Wave resistance
• Water properties resistance

And since Simcenter Amesim makes it possible to model a ship operating for several days, these resistances can vary dynamically through the simulation, enabling you to predict the vessel’s response to realistic operating conditions and complete mission profiles

Using the variable sea conditions model allows you to answer business-critical questions like what are the best sea route and speed for minimizing my Fuel Oil Consumption?

Additionally, it enables you to tackle typical engineering issues like Is my propulsion system powerful enough to handle a very rough sea state? How does my DC grid behave in highly variable sea conditions? How can my battery and controller ensure proper peak shaving in these conditions?

New marine template models

In addition to this variable sea conditions model, we also have added several demo models in the Simcenter Amesim help portal. Users will be able to reuse them instead of starting the modeling work from scratch.

We hope you will like it! Meanwhile, we are working on something even bigger! Stay tuned.

To learn more about Simcenter Amesim for marine propulsion system architectures, watch our latest webinar.

Want to know more?

• Read our blog post on the new 2020.1 release of Simcenter Amesim
• Watch this video to discover the main new capabilities of Simcenter system simulation solutions 2020.1