A comparative study on the design of an environmentally friendly RoPax ferry using CFD

Abstract

RoPax ferries are designed for maximum efficiency, enabling smooth loading and unloading of cars, cargo and passengers. When optimising successful RoPax design, a compromise is always made between a light and compact hull geometry with diminished power requirement whilst providing substantial car and passenger capacities.In response to recent computational developments, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a widely-used design tool amongst naval architects owing to its more accurate results compared to conventional potential flow theory based techniques. By combining CFD tools with Computer Aided Design (CAD) software, it is possible to obtain useful results at an early stage of a typical ship design process.The key objective of this paper is to design an environmentally friendly RoPax ferry utilising CAD and CFD tools. This aim was achieved by developing a new RoPax design with a new green power plant configuration releasing less greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to the atmosphere. The performance of the green power plant was assessed through making a comparison to other power plant options. It is clearly shown in the paper that the hybrid LNG turbine is the most environmentally-friendly power option amongst the two other power plants investigated in this piece of research.