Views on the future development of ship technology

By　Zeng Xiaoguang

A fter reading an article named “China’s 10 most distinctive ships built in 2017” recently, I not only felt the rapid development and signi fi cant improvement in technological innovation of China’s shipbuilding industry, but also made some thinking on the future development of ship technology and would share with readers.

Firstly, green + smart = the future

Summarizing the development of ship technology, we have gone through a road from energy conservation to energy saving and environmental protection and to green and then to the current combination of green and intelligence. The future development of ship technology must be the integration of green and intelligence. On the one hand, to reduce operating costs is the unchanging pursuit of shipping companies and the international maritime environmental requirements will be increasingly stringent. Therefore, it requires more and more green ships. Here, it is necessary to note that the concept of green ships is not just the greening of the ship itself and its connotation is richer. It refers to adopting advanced technologies on the basis of meeting the function and use performance requirements in the ship's life cycle(design-build-operate-dismantling) to save resources,realize energy consumption and reduce or eliminate environmental pollution. In a word, green ships should have three basic elements, environmental coordination,advanced technology and economic rationality. Among them, environment coordination is the most important characteristic of green ships. Ships can only be called green on the basis of advanced technology and economic rationality and the environmental coordination must be totally met. On the other hand, with the development of internet technology, big data analysis technology and artificial intelligence technology, industrial products are leaping forward from “CNC generation” to “smart generation”, ship products cannot be an exception of course.

Secondly, polar ships deserve attention

China has made remarkable achievements in Antarctic expeditions. However, the exploration in the Arctic is a virgin land. In the past 50 years in this century till the economic value of northeastern routes in the Arctic appears, the design and construction of navigation vessels in the Arctic polar regions will become a significant symbol of the development of shipbuilding technology in the world's major shipbuilding industries.

Judging from the technical development of polar ships, the technologies to be solved in the future mainly include the design of polar ships, ice-pool test,navigation stability / speediness and maneuverability in ice areas, polar ship-ice FEM calculation, the effect analysis of low temperature on hull material and various equipment, hull strength linear / nonlinear (buckling)/ fatigue and risk analysis, propulsion system special equipment and special materials propeller, polar ship deck / cabin machinery, polar ship equipment protection technology and ice defense and de-icing measures, polar environmental protection, emergency rescue and other technologies.

Thirdly, marine development promotes the rapid development of special vessels and equipment

Four of the 10 most distinctive Chinese ships built in 2017 are special or dedicated vessels for ocean development. With the progress of ocean development,the demand for such equipment will continue to grow in the future.

Such equipment includes related equipment for the development, utilization and protection of offshore oil and gas resources, mineral resources and renewable energy,such as deep-water prospection vessels, deep-sea mining vessels, deep-sea scientific research drilling vessels and offshore reef utilization and safety support equipment.

From point of view of technical development, largescale equipment will continue to be multi-functional and small equipment tend to be more specialized. As mentioned in the article, the most outstanding deep water marine vessel, “Maersk Installer”, can complete subsea engineering module installation and maintenance in harsh sea conditions, work-level robot construction, ship-toship large objects lifting, seabed hoses laying, platform supply, maritime fire rescue and other operations, its performance are ahead of similar ships in the world.Another example is the semi-submersible ship “Zhenhua 33” with the largest capacity, it can realize 10,000-ton ship berthing transit, helicopters maritime relay protection, ship emergency repair and evacuation at sea in addition to shipping large-scale steel structures and offshore drilling platforms, which is also the embodiment of multi-function.

China’s shipbuilding industry is changing from“follow”to “neck and neck” and “l(fā)eading” by accelerating independent innovation. The future of technological innovation must be cross-cutting collaboration and crosstechnology integration. Therefore, China's shipbuilding industry not only needs to strengthen its internal synergetic innovation, but also should cooperate with the superior institutions in other industries both at home and abroad. Together with the global resources, China's shipbuilding industry should promote the progress of China's shipbuilding technology, create competitive advantages and lead the technology.