Class NK and NAPA to Cut Ship Design Time and Cost

Japanese classification society ClassNK and Finnish maritime software company NAPA have agreed on a new joint project to reduce the time and cost of designing vessels in accordance with the new IACS harmonised Common Structural Rules.

The new project will, according to the parties involved, enhance the data linkage between ClassNK’s PrimeShip-HULL(HCSR) design support software with NAPA’s 3D model based integrated design software NAPA Steel greatly improving the efficiency of the ship design process and reducing the cost of designing vessels in accordance with the new rules.

Adopted in 2013, the IACS harmonised CSR will be applied to all tankers over 150m and all bulk carriers over 90m contracted after July 1, 2015. The harmonised CSR brings new requirements for more comprehensive structural analysis at the design stage, including FEM analyses covering the entire range of cargo hold structures, as well as new formulae for buckling, fatigue, and residual strength criteria to enhance safety and reliability. However, these new requirements also greatly increase the overall time needed for vessel design.

In order to help reduce the burden of the new rules on ship designers, ClassNK released PrimeShip-HULL (HCSR), a multi-functional vessel design support tool that makes it easy for yards and designers to carry out rule calculations and optimize their designs in accordance with the new rules.

According to ClassNK Executive Vice President Yasushi Nakamura, PrimeShip-HULL (HCSR) is the world’s first design support software to incorporate the requirements of the harmonised CSR.

“With PrimeShip-HULL(HCSR) we have already succeeded in reducing the additional time needed for HCSR vessel design by roughly 50%, but our goal is to reduce the workload and in turn costs for ship designers and builders around the world. By improving the link to NAPA Steel and other design software we believe we can achieve even greater results,” said Nakamura.

Today 95% of the world’s vessels are built by yards which use NAPA’s ship design software, including its integrated 3D model based design system NAPA Steel. NAPA Steel allows yards to rationalize their ship design processes, reduce calculation time, and create high quality finite element models.

NAPA President Juha Heikinheimo said: “Improved linkage between NAPA Steel and ClassNK’s PrimeShip-HULL (HCSR) will allow yards building CSR compliant vessels to even further streamline their design process, while also eliminating the need for designers to input duplicate data into multiple programs.”

Press Release