Holistic approach design and optimisation for wind assisted ship propulsion

This paper introduces the CREATOR method, developed to support holistic design for vessels with wind propulsion by integrating multiple naval architecture disciplines. CREATOR, a flexible Python-based framework, predicts ship performance within a defined design space and is coupled to a surrogate based optimiser to obtain the optimum design.
The tool's application is demonstrated on a Newcastlemax bulk carrier with rotor sails, as part of the EU project OPTIWISE. Key findings include that the largest power savings per ton cargo*miles are achieved with a ship resembling an existing Newcastlemax bulk carrier. Larger propeller diameters (10.5m for FPP and 10.25m for CPP) yield additional power savings of 1.0-1.5%. While fixed-pitch propellers are 3% more efficient under design conditions, both fixed and controllable-pitch propellers show similar power savings when wind propulsion is considered. Future work will include fuel savings analysis, rotor sails interactions and weather routing.