ShipX

The SINTEF Vessel Simulator (VeSim) is a time-domain simulation tool for the simulation of ships in a seaway with variable heading and speed. The simulator has been developed in the course of decades and is still under continuous improvement. All of its hydrodynamic modules are based on years of experience in numerical modelling at SINTEF.

One of the principal challenges in the development of the simulator has been to combine manoeuvring and seakeeping into one common simulation code. Traditionally, these two fields have been treated separately. Manoeuvring has been simulated in calm water only, and seakeeping has been studied at constant forward speed and heading.

Creating a unified formulation of the hydrodynamics that link these two disciplines has been a key aim in the development of VeSim, as it should be able to handle not only a vessel in DP operations or calm water manoeuvring, but actual manoeuvres at sea in rough conditions. 

The external forces from waves, wind and current are modelled, including effects such as short-crested irregular waves and the effects of wind gusts. Propulsion units such as propeller and rudder, tunnel thrusters, pods and cycloidal propellers etc. including loss effects due to ventilation, hull interaction and interaction between thrusters are also modelled.

Typical sensors onboard a ship, such as GPS, MRU and gyrocompass are modelled, enabling hardware-in-the-loop testing of control systems, where the hardware can receive sensor signals as if it were on board a real ship and pass control signals back to the simulation software.

The simulator can be configured using SINTEF’s hydrodynamic workbench ShipX, in which the numerical model describing the ship can be computed and propulsion units, sensors etc can be defined. A number of simulation controller models are included, allowing the execution of both standard IMO manoeuvres and complex user-defined station keeping and path-following manoeuvre scenarios. 

The VeSim simulation framework is based on the Open Simulation Platform, allowing easy integration with third party software or simulation models compliant with the Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI).