NATIONAL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS
School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering
Professor Nicholas G. TSOUVALIS
CURRENT PROJECTS
Digital Ship Structural Health Monitoring – dTHOR
December 2022-November 2025
EDF-2021-NAVAL-R-SSHM
The dTHOR project will develop next generation predictive Ship Structural Health Monitoring (SSHM) systems. These systems will be based on innovative utilisation of large amounts of load and response measurements from robust and advanced sensor systems, a digital framework complying with recognised open standards for data exchange, and hybrid analysis and modelling (HAM) which combines physics-based and data-driven models. These tools will be applied to achieve interoperable and evolving models facilitating a game change for SSHM. By delivering the above-mentioned predictive capabilities, the dTHOR project will enable:
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A holistic approach to complete lifecycle management from design to decommissioning.
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Effective transition from traditional time-based to condition-based maintenance.
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Increased operational availability and increased levels of safety.
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Continuous optimisation of operational performance in peace time and war time/crisis situations.
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Game-changing speed of knowledge transfer between Research, Innovation, Design and Operations (the digital RIDO-concept).
There are 35 partners involved in dTHOR, and some of them are: SINTEF AS, Light Structures AS, SEA Europe, NAVAL GROUP, SAFRAN DATA SYSTEMS, Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems GmbH, ISD SA, CERTH, INTRACOM DEFENSE SA, UNIVERSITY OF PATRAS, CETENA SpA, POLITECNICO DI MILANO, MARIN, DAMEN SCHELDE NAVAL SHIPBUILDING BV, TU Delft, Saab Kockums AB, NAVANTIA.
Safe and efficient storage of ammonia within ships – NH3CRAFT
June 2022-May 2025
HORIZON-CL5-2021-D5-01-07
NH3CRAFT aims at fully designing, engineering, developing and demonstrating a next generation sustainable, commercially attractive and safe technology for high-quantity on-board storage of NH3 as marine fuel. Two innovative modular and scalable steel and composite storage tank configurations for 1,000 m3 liquid NH3 at 10 bar and the corresponding auxiliary systems will be installed on a 31,000 Deadweight Tonnage (DWT) multi-purpose vessel. Additionally, five different types of vessels and corresponding fuel-storage tank concept adaptations will be studied and documented: a bulk carrier, a tanker and a container ocean going vessels, a typical RoPax ferry, and a small Inland Waterways Transportation passenger vessel. An innovative digital platform will integrate all core simulations and models through digital interfaces and will develop an engineering system matrix and specifications for the fuel storage, supply, and piping, monitoring and venting subsystems. Safety and risk assessment for all vessels will lead to the development of safety guidelines and classification rules. NH3CRAFT will showcase the entire NH3 supply chain in order to increase confidence in its use and promote its uptake. LCA and techno-economic evaluation will prove the sustainability and will support further exploitation and commercialization of the innovative solutions. The partners involved in NH3CRAFT are the following: HYDRUS, RINA, AMERICAN BUREAU OF SHIPPING, TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET DRESDEN, CONNOVA DEUTSCHLAND GMBH, EKME, COLUMBIA SHIPMANAGEMENT LTD, FOUNDATION WEGEMT, ENISOLV LTD, TWI LIMITED, UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE.
Operator-Centered Enhancement of Awareness
in Navigation – OCEAN
October 2022-September 2025
HORIZON-CL5-2022-D6-01-08
The OCEAN project approach is to contribute to the mitigation of navigational accidents by supporting the navigators to do an even better job than they do presently. Such support does not only relate to an ‘on-the-spot’ enhancement of navigational awareness – including the presence of marine mammals and floating containers – or an improved performance of evasive manoeuvring and other mitigating actions. The project will go both deeper and wider, to identify and suggest amendments or improvements in the most pertinent factors that may contribute to events becoming accidents: training, technical, human or organisational factors, operational constraints, processes and procedures, commercial pressures or structural issues like shortcomings in rules and regulations. From an implementation perspective, the OCEAN project will develop new design methods and operational processes, as well as integrating existing technologies to provide novel and improved functionalities. A key convergence point is the overall navigation situation assessment made by the operator, and the project aims at providing an integrated and designed-for-the-purpose presentation of near-field threats and navigational hinderances. The project outputs will include an Evasive Manoeuvring Agent, intended to work in tandem with existing ship systems, continuously assessing navigational safety with respect to grounding or collision with other ships, fixed structures or other threats, and the visualization of advanced manoeuvring prediction. OCEAN will suggest the creation of a European Navigational Hazard infrastructure to collect, process and distribute data relating to the presence of marine mammals and floating containers. Further innovations comprise input to upcoming and revised international standards for maritime communications and practical methods to design maritime instruments and devices, all of which will be demonstrated in consolidated scenarios. The partners involved in NH3CRAFT are the following: HOGSKULEN PA VESTLANDET, KYSTVERKET, THE NAUTICAL INSTITUTE, CENTRE INTERNACIONAL DE METODES NUMERICS EN ENGINYERIA, TELEDYNE RESON A/S, UNIVERSIDADE DOS ACORES, KONGSBERG MARITIME AS, ONGSBERG SEATEX AS, LLOYD'S REGISTER, UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE CATALUNYA, Irish Ferries Limited, Irish Whale and Dolphin Group.
Development of multifunctional fiber reinforced composites
with nano-modified matrix phase towards wind turbine
applications (AIOLOS)
AIOLOS is an innovative 30 month project starting in October 2021 and aiming at the development of a new class of hybrid nanocomposite materials with enhanced mechanical strength, durability and SHM during operation capabilities. These hybrid composites will be composed of glass fiber reinforced epoxy matrix further reinforced with carbon based nanostructures and will be manufactured using an innovative lamination sequence by a combination of multiple manufacturing methods. The proposed materials and manufacturing methods of AIOLOS aim at wind turbine applications, wings and components of wind turbines for terrestrial or marine areas, and will constitute alternative solutions with increased reliability and enhanced strength compared to the existing conventional composite materials.
The AIOLOS consortium comprises of the following participants:
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COMPOSITE AND SMART MATERIALS LABORATORY, University of Ioannina
Study of the appropriateness and the adequacy of modern materials for offshore fish cage nets – numerical and experimental investigation in realistic loading conditions (MATISSE)
MATISSE is a 36 months national project starting in summer 2019 and has a budget of about 200.000€.
The project concerns the adequacy of modern materials for fish cage nets to be used in systems of offshore aquacultures. Those systems provide a variety of advantages and benefits compared to the traditional coastal aquacultures. Nevertheless, the installation and the materialization of such systems is unquestionably a technological challenge given the hostile environment where they should operate and the innovative dimension of the offshore aquaculture clusters. However, the contemporary feeding demands of the international population that undoubtedly shall be intensified in the near future given its radical increase, make the implementation of relevant projects an unavoidable process. In that context, indeed, the future of aquaculture relies offshore in deeper water fields. The present project shall constitute a valuable contribution toward this task, given that aside from the traditional lab testing for the adequacy of modern materials for fish cage nets, will go a step further proposing the overall investigation of the their appropriateness in realistic conditions. To this end, the research team will design a complete offshore aquaculture system, together with its mooring system, in installation sites that have been already selected. In addition, a unique experimental campaign shall be performed using proper similitude factors of the expected realistic conditions. The main goal of the project is to develop a complete pilot study for the technological guidance of relevant projects of offshore aquacultures which are the future in fish breeding.
The MATISSE consortium comprises of the following participants:
Design Of Twin-Hull Electrically Driven
Passenger Ferries (ELCAT)
ELCAT is a 30 months national project starting in spring 2020 and has a budget of about 1.0 million Euros.
The main objective of this proposal is the design of small twin hull passenger vessels (catamarans) based on electrical power for their propulsion in order to respond to environmental pollution issues caused by vessels (CO2 emissions). There will be two alternative designs: one with purely electric propulsion systems charged by means of a shore connection for short voyages and a hybrid design for longer voyages, which – apart from the shore connection - will carry two diesel generators to re-charge her batteries. In this latter case, the generators operation will be suspended while the vessel is near or in the port area. Solar panels will be installed in both cases.
Detailed structural and hydrodynamic optimization will be carried out in order to minimize the lightship weight and propulsion power respectively, aiming to reducing the required batteries capacity, weight and cost as well as (in case of the hybrid propulsion) the fuel consumption and the CO2 emissions.
The know-how which will be developed could be easily applied to other types of small twin-hull vessels, such as harbour workboats (anti-pollution, garbage collection, crew-supply vessels, etc.) or pleasure boats operating at short ranges and environmentally.
PROJECTS COMPLETED
Realisation and Demonstration of Advanced Material Solutions
for Sustainable and Efficient Ships (RAMSSES)
RAMSSES (www.ramsses-project.eu) was an H2020 European project with a total budget of 13.5 million € and EU contribution of 10.8 million €. The consortium comprised 36 partners from 12 European countries, dominated by industrial partners. The project started on June 1st 2017 and lasted for four years. RAMSSES aimed to foster the application of new materials in maritime and inland waterway applications by:
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Developing, demonstrating and validating 13 specific maritime products to prepare for commercial market uptake immediately after the project. The demonstration cases in RAMSSES included innovative components and modular lightweight systems, maritime equipment, the application of high performance steels in load-carrying hull structures, the integration of composite materials in various structures, as well as solutions for global repair. The demonstrator teams were led by industry.
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Conducting a comprehensive assessment of technical properties, life cycle cost and environmental performance of the demonstrator cases as a basis for approval of the specific solutions, but also with the aim to re-use test results, material data and experiences for future similar applications and make this ‘knowledge base’ accessible to a wider range of maritime end-users.
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Setting up a Materials Innovation Platform for information exchange and cooperation which is open to other projects. This not only facilitates a systematic knowledge uptake and technology transfer from other sectors (automotive, rail, aeronautics and material sciences) into the maritime sector, but also made project results and accumulated expertise available to a broader community of maritime producers and operators, which will foster the application of innovative materials in the European maritime sector.
The consortium consists of CETENA, CMT, Balance, DCNS, Bureau Veritas, Damen Schelde, Meyer Werft, Meyer Turku, Baltico, Podcomp, Uljanik, MEC, STX France, Baltic Workboats, Airborne, Netcomposites, Swerea Sicomp, Rise, Fraunhofer AGP, IRT JV, TNO, ENSTA, ECN, Aalto, NTUA, Fincantieri, Infracore, Galventus, Cardama, NMTF, Evonik, Becker Marine Systems, Damen Gorinchem, OCS, Hutchinson and AIMEN.
Ship life cycle software solutions (SHIPLYS)
SHIPLYS (www.shiplys.com) wasa three-year project starting in September 2016 and had
a budget of about 6.2 million Euros.
The project is in response to needs of SME naval architects, shipbuilders and ship-owners,
who in order to survive in the world market require to:
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improve their capability to reduce the time and costs of design and production
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develop the ability to reliably produce better ship concepts through virtual prototyping
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meet the increasing requirements for LCCA (Life Cycle Cost Analysis), environmental assessments, risk assessments and end-of-life considerations as differentiators
The SHIPLYS consortium comprised 12 participants from 7 countries who brought together a mix of stakeholder organisations and corresponding expertise. The participants included shipyards, a classification society, research institutes and industrial organisations that developed and provide technologies used in structural design and production. The consortium consisted of the following:
