Mojo Maritime’s HF4 has demonstrated stunning DP (Dynamic Positioning) performance and manoeuvring characteristics based on results of simulations recently undertaken, the company said in a release.
Mojo Maritime has concluded the design of the advanced DP system in collaboration with GE and Voith Turbo and it has been tested in DP simulations and ship-handling simulators respectively.
The target was to develop a vessel with the ability to hold station to a tight footprint in currents of up to 10 knots- this dramatically exceeds the capabilities of any vessels currently on the market, thereby providing major risk and cost reductions across a range of industries and operations.
“An extensive list of scenarios has been simulated based on a wide range of real-life operational and worst case situations”
The simulation tools used to design the DP system for the HF4 were based on collecting and analysing turbulence data from the Inner Sound, Pentland Firth.
The current speeds and directions at this site fluctuate dramatically, making them very difficult for existing DP systems to cope with due to the changing variables, thereby confusing the DP software.
These scenarios have included failure of a thruster during operation, which is the worst single-point failure expected when operating in harsh environments.
Toby Bates from DP Training and Development at Mojo Maritime said: “ The vessel was able to maintain station even in very extreme environmental conditions- 10 knots of current combined with 50 knot winds and 3m waves.
We then failed the thrusters and systems and amazingly the vessel lost a small amount of position yet recovered within seconds.”
This extraordinary DP performance has the potential to deliver techno-economic advantages to a range of applications in the renewable energy sector- notably:
Richard Parkinson, Managing Director of Mojo : “Compared to a conventional vessel she is able to operate with current and wind from any direction, which makes set up on site much quicker and much more flexible. We are planning for the first vessel to be delivered in June 2016”.
The vessel will be presented at the upcoming SMM Conference in Hamburg.
[mappress] Press Release, August 27, 2014