QinetiQ GRC's Paramarine to certify Royal Navy ship stability
Above: Frigate design produced by Paramarine.
The MoD operates a diverse range of ships worldwide, including aircraft carriers, frigates, destroyers, minehunters, fleet auxiliaries, patrol craft and small boats for operations and adventurous training. For these ships and other craft, the Surface Ship Stability & Hydrodynamics Group acts as both a safety certification authority and advisor. Its roles include provision of technical advice, maintenance of standards and guidance to ship projects and the safety regulation of stability and buoyancy of MoD shipping activities.
Examples of the Surface Ship Stability & Hydrodynamics group’s work include the responsibility for the management of hull fouling to optimise fleet fuel consumption which has saved many millions of pounds. In addition the group’s work on the development of the use of structural loss damage templates is leading to both residual stability and strength being assessed concurrently. This will bring enormous benefits to both the design and the salvage and emergency response communities.
Steve Marshall, Ship Stability Safety Regulator, Surface Ship Stability & Hydrodynamics, Sea Systems Group, MoD, said: “Paramarine is a fully validated product for aspects relating to ship stability. Paramarine is easy to use and very flexible. Its ease of audit is very beneficial, allowing us to audit other organisations work such as the defence contractors or the ship project teams in the MoD. We are continually looking to become more efficient and effective in our provision of advice and solutions to compliance with standards and see Paramarine as a key tool in helping us achieve this.“
Paramarine is based on over 20 years’ experience in marine design and has a wealth of submarine specific analyses in one integrated product. Confidence in its capabilities comes from the independent validation of results and that it is approved for use by the UK MoD. In addition thousands of concept vessels have been modelled and their stability analysed using the software tool. It is been deployed by many of the world’s leading shipbuilders, as well as some of the world’s leading universities including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University College London. The recent launch of the latest version of Paramarine (V7) has further extended the software’s functionality with enhancements to its reporting, concurrent design and documentation capabilities.
Vittorio Vagliani, Managing Director, QinetiQ GRC, said: “We have established an excellent working relationship with the MoD who makes extensive use of Paramarine. Like many of our defence and commercial customers they provide us with feedback to assist us in the continual development and enhancement of the features and capabilities of Paramarine. This helps make it a world leading tool for ship and submarine design.”
