The European Commission has allocated 6.2 million Euros ($7 million) to the three-year research project SHIPLYS (Ship Lifecycle Software Solutions).

The Welding Institute hosted the first SHIPLYS project meeting that took place in Cambridge, U.K. last week.

The project is a response to the needs of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in naval architecture, shipbuilding and shipowning, who in order to survive in the world market require to:

•    improve their capability to reduce the time and costs of design and production
•    develop the ability to reliably produce better ship concepts through virtual prototyping
•    meet the increasing requirements for life cycle cost analysis), environmental assessments, risk assessments and end-of-life considerations as differentiators.

The calculation and modelling to achieve this are difficult and time consuming, especially for SMEs without a large overhead of trained staff and tools. This poses challenges in integrating data between incompatible tools and formats for different design stages: conceptual hull design; the finite element calculations feeding preliminary and detailed designs; and virtual prototyping simulation models.

This is coupled with the lack of an industry specific lifecycle modelling technique, hindered by the lack of information to support reliable decision-making. SHIPLYS aims to address these challenges for the benefit of various stakeholders involved.

The SHIPLYS consortium comprises of 12 participants from seven countries who bring together a mix of stakeholder organizations and corresponding expertise. The participants include shipyards, a classification society, research institutes and industrial organizations that develop and provide technologies used in structural design and production: