Improved hull reduces fuel use 10%

Improved hull reduces fuel use 10%    Germanischer Lloyd said it has fine-tuned the design of a series of six 9,000-TEU ships in such a way that they will be able to reduce fuel consumption by 10 percent.
   The classification society said its FutureShip subsidiary, working with Chinese design firm Maric, was able to significantly improve the lines of the ship and as a result “a smaller main engine can be installed than originally anticipated.” Carbon dioxide emissions are also cut by more than 90 tons per day.
   Ship owners Schulte Group of Germany and Costamare Inc. of Greece had requested the design review in order to optimize the vessel’s efficiency.
   FutureShip’s optimization procedure generated 15,000 different hull designs and evaluated them numerically. Tests performed last month at the Hamburg Ship Model Basin found the optimized model had a significantly lower total resistance than the base design.
   GL said the additional optimization expenses would be amortized within a few days of operation of the ships, which will be built in China and are scheduled for delivery beginning in 2013.