The project funded by the Norwegian Research Council (MAROFF), led by Grieg Star in cooperation with SINTEF Ocean,  Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Skipsrederi, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean and National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), was initiated as an opportunity to apply the capabilities of the Smart Maritime shop performance skmulation platform for the area of route planning and weather routing.

The project RuteSim is developing a route analysis tool  - ship model-based route simulation tool - combining validated ship simulators with detailed weather forecasts and innovative ocean current models. The tool will increase the precision of the calculation of key parameters such as fuel consumption, ship motion, sailing time. and aims to give ship owners better decision support in.

Sketch of RuteSim route simulator.

2020 achievements

Researchers on board Star Japan: a unique experience made possible thanks to Grieg Star. 

SINTEF Ocean's researchers Endre Sandvik and Agathe Rialland conducted a field visit onboard Grieg Star's Star Japan during the period Feb. 14th-19th 2020.

The visit consisted of field observation and interviews, with the primary objective to observe and learn about current practices related to voyage planning and weather routing: process and principles of route planning, software used, use and interpretation of weather forecasts, use of weather routing services. The participation to the voyage Bremen-Herøya gave us the possibility to collect information about navigation rules, systems and practices, and about voyage replanning and main principles for route diversion.

Collecting field data is highly important in the ongoing development of Rutesim, to ensure that the tool captures in the best possible manner the process of passage planning and weather routing onboard, as well as navigation rules and principles. This, to ensure that the simulation of the route and the vessel response shall be as close to reality as possible.

We are highly grateful to both Mr Roar Fanebust and Capt. Espejo and all the STAR JAPAN crew members for having given us this unique opportunity to experience navigation, ship operations, and a glimpse of work and life onboard.

Star Japan at Bremen (Picture: Rialland)

Voyage Plan (Video: Rialland)

Bremerhaven Container Port (Photo: Rialland)

Pilot leaving ship (Photos: Sandvik)

Experiencing North Sea (Photo: Rialland)

Approaching Langesund and Brevik Bridge (Photo: Sandvik)

Survey on Passage Planning & Weather Routing: Practice and Tools

In April, the project conducted a survey for mapping the use and perceived utility of weather routing onboard tools and services; identify need for further R&D.

The respondents were Ship Masters and Officers.

The topic covered were: Passage planning, Weather routing, Weather forecast, Weather routing tools, Weather routing services.

The Questionnaire was prepared in collaboration with RuteSim project partners and distributed to their ships. We also got valuable support from SFI Smart Maritime partner Solvang, which increase significantly the number of responses to the survey. We are highly grateful to all respondent for the time taken to answer RuteSim survey, particularly during this highly challenging time!

72 responses were collected. Half of the results to the survey are qualitative data (open-ended questions) which give us valuable insight in the practices onboard, expectations and challenges with regards to support tools and services. Survey is anonymous and detailed results are distributed to the participating ship owners.

On a general matter, the weather routing tools available onboard are reported as valuable support tools for ensuring safe voyage along the route, with main attention on weather forecasts. When it comes to priority criteria for route decision, the most common criteria were weighted as follows:

Main route decision criteria (Source: RuteSim Survey, SINTEF Ocean, 2020)

Rutesim tool development

In currently under implementation, based on requirement specifications listed up by the project partners.

The mapping of weather wind wave current forecasts, data and sources in collaboration with NERSC is also finalised.

Publications:

SINTEF Ocean is currently working on a publication on Weather Routing methods based on RuteSim concept, depicting the effects of detailed ship model and use of ocean current forecasts.

About RuteSim:

The project

The project RuteSim is developing a route analysis tool combining validated ship simulators with detailed weather forecasts and innovative ocean current models. The tool will increase the precision of the calculation of key parameters such as fuel consumption, ship motion, sailing time. and aims to give ship owners better decision support in.

The motivation behind RuteSim is to enable ship operators to simulate and compare various routes in a transparent way and provide decision support for voyage planning and post-voyage performance analysis.

Today, the outsourcing of analyses and route calculations to weather routing services is a common practice. Weather routing support tools are also available and used onboard enabling Masters to visualise weather forecast along the planned route. These are reported as valuable support tools for ensuring safe voyage along the route, with main focus on weather forecasts. Rutesim aims at supplying the existing support tools and offering possibility to explore and benchmark various routes simultaneously and quickly visualise the impact of planning decisions.

Rutesim decision support tool

Rutesim is a route simulation tool for analysis of ship performance along a given route, by computing the propulsion power and ship motions to estimate fuel consumption and load on the ship and its cargo given the forecasted weather and sea conditions along the planned route. Rutesim builds up on the main following models:

1. Transit hydrodynamics: Predicts propulsion power at a waypoint considering vessel speed and environmental condition.
2. Weather forecast: includes data on wind, waves and surface currents for each waypoint
3. Vessel model: Contains resistance, propulsion and motion characteristics for power and motion response prediction.

Main performance parameters for route analysis include: speed/RPM/power, fuel consumption, voyage duration, sailed distance and exceedance of motion operational limits at points of interest.

Rutesim enables visualization of the ship performance along the route together with the respective weather forecast. Focus is put on user friendliness and transparency, and access via web server.

Primary users of Rutesim will be ship operators for fleet performance management and as a support tool for route assessment and comparison.

Main features

• Web-access
• Create route (list of way points)
• Specify the part of the route to be simulated and analysed
• Route main information: ETD,
• Import route in rtz format
• Import vessel 3D model from database
• Retrieve ocean weather forecasts (wind, wave, current) from online sources
• Enable the consideration of Ensemble weather forecasts
• Simulate vessel voyage, weather and ship performance along the route.
• Map visualisation with weather effects (different map layers to choose from): Enable visualisation of ship voyage and weather evolution.
• Route animation (play, pause, fast forward)
• Present for each route the main performance criteria (time, risk, fuel etc.) and enable comparison.
• Route comparison: KPIs and their probability spreads.
• Provide indication about level of uncertainty in weather forecast.
• Enable comparison and simultaneous visualisation of distinct routes evoluting synchronously.
• Storage of routes and results of simulation.