A free running instrumented container ship model for investigating energy efficiency in waves

As the shipping sector faces up to the challenge of decarbonisation there is an urgent need to increase the energy efficiency of ships. Improved design will need the synthesis of computational, experimental and analytical approaches to the investigation of ship powering. While there has been a significant emphasis on improvements to the use of computational simulations there is an equivalent need to enhance the quality of measurements and insights that can be gained from towing tank tests. To this end an instrumented geosim of the KCS hull form has been built and representative results from four test campaigns are presented. The synchronised measurements of wave environment, model motions, hull forces and moments, propeller thrust and torque as well as rudder forces and moments allows time accurate performance to be understood rather than just mean behaviour. This gives much greater insight into the physics of the interaction between hull, propeller and rudder as well as how that influences the power demand and overall voyage energy