ClassNK Releases World’s First Harmonized CSR Compliant Ship Design Support Software

9 January, 2014 – Leading classification society ClassNK (Chairman and President: Noboru Ueda) has announced the release of a new version of its PrimeShip-HULL (HCSR) ship design support software that is fully compliant with the new IACS Common Structural Rules (harmonized CSR) for oil tankers and bulk carriers. The new ship design support software is the first in the world to fully support the new Common Strucutural Rules, which were adopted by IACS in December 2013. As part of its work to support the development of safer ships, ClassNK is providing the software free of charge to its customers such as shipyards and designers around the world.

The new IACS CSR not only unify and harmonize the technical requirements of the existing Common Structural Rules (CSR) for tankers and bulk carriers, but also incorporate 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. The new rules will be applied to all bulk carriers over 90m and all oil tankers over 150m contracted on and after 1 July 2015.

Although the harmonized CSR represents a major step forward for ship safety, they also present a number of new challenges for shipyards and designers. It was in order to address those challenges and reduce the manpower and cost burdens on yards and designers that ClassNK began development of its new design support software.

“While the new rules will mean safer ships, shipyards and designers will have to invest new resources to meet new design criteria and bring their designs into compliance with the new rules,” said Dr. Takuya Yoneya, ClassNK Executive Vice President and head of development for PrimeShip-HULL (HCSR). “With PrimeShip-HULL (HCSR), our goal has been to develop a comprehensive and powerful design support tool that rationalizes the design process and greatly reduces the man-hours needed to create ship designs that are compliant with the new rules.”

The result of more than four years of comprehensive development work, PrimeShip-HULL (HCSR) builds on the core of ClassNK’s existing PrimeShip-HULL-CSR software, combining rule calculation, and FE Model-based direct strength calculation software with completely new systems designed to interface directly with commercial CAD and rule calculation software, as well as automate parts of the basic design process.

“Thanks to the new interface with commercial CAD, PrimeShip-HULL (HCSR) makes it possible to automatically generate FE models for the fore, mid, and aft sections of the ship, as well as very fine mesh and buckling panel data. This makes it possible to greatly reduce the time required for some of the most man-hour intensive parts of ship design work,” said Dr. Yoneya.

In addition to the improved interface, PrimeShip-HULL (HCSR) also includes a number of features to support both initial and full ship design, making it possible for shipyards and designers to rapidly carry out case studies of potential designs, as well as optimize their designs in accordance with the harmonized CSR.

All of the features of PrimeShip-HULL (HCSR) have been developed in close cooperation with shipyards to ensure that users will be able to effectively reduce the time and cost of the ship design process. “We have timely released preliminary versions of PrimeShip-HULL (HCSR) to coincide with the first and second drafts of the harmonized CSR in July 2012 and April 2013, respectively, and since that initial release more than 70 shipyards and ship design firms throughout Asia have tested the software and provided design feedback.”

“Thanks to this extensive testing, we’re confident that the new software will make it easier for shipyards and designers to incorporate the harmonized CSR requirements in their ship designs, and cost-effectively design a new generation of safer and more robust ships.”