Designing electric boats: Leveraging simulation software

Creating electric ships that meet green shipping standards requires a tightly integrated design approach. Simcenter’s suite of CAE tools can support naval architects’ understanding of the electrification process and help them discover better designs faster. This webinar reviews the plethora of ways that shipbuilders can leverage Simcenter solutions to design efficient electric ships and includes detailed tutorials on how to build boat battery packs and electric propeller motors. Learn how to optimize your electric boat design to achieve the appropriate margin of safety, test its performance in various sea states using full-scale simulations and gain unprecedented insight into your entire electric drivetrain.

Optimize electric ships for green shipping

The marine industry is facing increasing pressure to become more sustainable and drastically reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to support the broader GHG reduction strategy. To meet the demands of green shipping and create efficient electric watercrafts, the market is seeking cheaper fuel alternatives and electric propulsion systems. However, building efficient electric boats has proven to be more complicated than simply installing a boat battery pack in an existing hull. Achieving optimal performance of electric ships requires an integrated design approach that looks at the vessel’s hydrodynamic performance, weight and electric drivetrain efficiency.

Create marine propulsion systems with electric propellers using simulation software

Discover the best electric boat design and speed up the design process with simulation software. When creating an electric propulsion system or a hybrid marine engine, it’s crucial to understand the propeller performance and powering requirements that are necessary to endure any sea condition or vessel maneuver. With Siemens marine propulsion system solutions, you can create a digital twin early in the design phase to predict electric propeller performance and optimize electric propeller motor designs to achieve the necessary propulsion efficiency.  

Test different electric motor designs for hybrid marine engines

Simcenter STAR-CCM+ contains several tools that allow you to optimize electric motor designs and battery pack designs for electric boats. Using a virtual towing tank approach, you can model your entire design at full scale and parameterize all key inputs, including weight, speed and center of mass. The simulations run in seconds so you can quickly assess various design options for the propulsion system and investigate how changes to any parameter could affect performance.

With insight into your electric ship’s powering requirements, propulsion efficiency and absorbed power of the propulsor-hull system, you can successfully determine the appropriate boat battery pack design and size for your electric watercraft. To predict how your battery will perform over time, Simcenter Battery Design Studio includes aging models that you can use to study the effects of calendar or cycle aging.

Perform and optimize realistic sea trials through CFD simulation

Leverage computational fluid dynamics simulation to perform sea trials and ensure that your electric boat can operate safely and reliably in any sea state. Assess its hydrodynamic and aerodynamic performance and receive real-time performance metrics on how your vessel operates in maneuvers, waves or any other operating condition. Visualize peak stresses on the hull to determine how to optimize the design and achieve the appropriate margin of safety. With unprecedented insight into your entire electric drivetrain, you can discern the most critical design parameters of your electric boat to improve its performance.