Pre­sen­ta­tion at FAST 2025

At the 2025 SNAME FAST, FRIEND­SHIP SYSTEMS and Hydro­Comp, Inc. will present a col­lab­o­ra­tive study that repli­cates the design path of the AutoPlan R&D project — an 11 m planing monohull designed for 27.5 knots — to compare outcomes and resource require­ments between Fully Com­pu­ta­tional CFD-based Design Space Explo­ration (FC-DSE) and Semi-Empir­i­cal Reduced-Order Design Space Explo­ration (SERO-DSE) approaches.

Using CAESES for para­met­ric hull modeling and auto­mated con­nec­tion to NavCad, the workflow enables effi­cient explo­ration of hull form variants. NavCad provides detailed pre­dic­tions for resis­tance figures, engine power, and effi­ciency data — allowing per­for­mance eval­u­a­tion of each design variant quickly and accu­rately within the opti­miza­tion loop.

Key findings:

• FC-DSE (CFD): 11.6 % reduc­tion in shaft power at model scale
• SERO-DSE (NavCad): 14.9 % reduc­tion in shaft power at full scale
• Nearly iden­ti­cal opti­mized hull geome­tries — achieved in a fraction of the time, from hours to seconds

Semi-empir­i­cal, reduced-order sim­u­la­tion proves to be a powerful frame­work for early-stage marine design. While not a replace­ment for CFD, it serves as a highly effec­tive front-end filter, enabling design­ers to rapidly identify the most promis­ing concepts for high-fidelity analysis.

This approach lowers the barrier to robust DSE, promotes earlier, data-informed decision-making, and supports the broader adoption of energy-effi­cient, next-gen­er­a­tion vessel designs.

Join the pre­sen­ta­tion and come see us at our booth at the 2025 SNAME Maritime Convention!