Ship trim optimization

The challenge

With more than 80 percent of the total global trade being transported through international shipping, pressure to reduce it's environmental footprint to the minimum possible is huge. Add to that the cost of fuel consumption for ship owners and it is clear why it is so important for the marine industry to reduce resistance in their vessels as much as possible. Minimizing resistance means reducing the amount of power needed. One way to obtain this is optimizing the hull. What else can be done to cut resistance significantly?

NUMFLO solution

Ship trim optimization has recently been gaining enormous momentum because of its big influence on ship resistance. The drag on a ship changes with the trim angle for the same speed and average draft. As such, imposing an optimized trim angle during the loading process in the harbor ensures minimal average resistance during the vessel’s journey.

This optimal dynamic trim can be computed using numerical simulations, for different drafts and speeds. NUMFLO has developed automatic scripts that can launch a matrix of resistance calculations. After post-processing of the results by our experts, power maps are provided that ship owners use to set up the ideal hydrostatic trim according to navigation conditions.