Four Coal bulk carrier ship

The Four Coal ship is a bulk carrier (approx. 100’000 DWT) that is now equipped with a ship hull structural monitoring system consisting of 55 fiber optic SmartProfile MuST sensors expressly developed by Smartec for this application field. This is the first fiber optic monitoring system designed and integrated into an operating ship of this typology.

Aim of monitoring:

The main aim of monitoring is the real-time diagnosis of the ship’s structural behavior, with particular reference to critical points and sections of the ship frame. For this purpose, thresholds of warning and alert are set according to critical deformation values. Increase the security level of the ship and decrease the insurance cost.

Main results:

Real-time diagnosis of onboard security for crew and cargo. Thresholds of warning and alert are set according to critical deformation values. Data supplied by the monitoring system are used to validate the ship’s structural model (typically the FEM – Finite Element Model). Long-term analysis: determination of the elastically deformed shape of the ship (by double integration of the curvature functions). Evaluation of the cycles of fatigue induced by the periodic solicitations of the hydro-dynamic motion (effect wave, oscillations). No electrical signal, just optical this avoid any explosion risks due to short circuit.