NAVIGATING THE FUTURE OF THE MARINE INDUSTRY
The marine industry landscape is rapidly changing. With strict environmental regulations by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), The FuelEU, and local governments, vessels will be subject to mandatory GHG emission intensity targets, requiring the maritime industry to embrace new technologies, cleaner fuels, and smarter operational strategies.
GT-SUITE offers comprehensive solutions tailored for the maritime industry, addressing critical regulatory challenges, strict timelines, and strategic needs to ensure seamless and successful compliance. This makes GT-SUITE the ideal marine system simulation software.
CHALLENGES IN THE MARINE SECTOR
Marine engineers face several challenges that need to be addressed for efficient and effective system design and operations. Some of the key challenges include:
Environmental Compliance
The trend toward increasingly stringent environmental regulations imposed by international organizations and local governments is driving the need for innovative solutions in onboard power generation.
GT-SUITE’s system simulation solutions enable shipowners, operators, and marine systems manufacturers to evaluate innovative fuel technologies. GT-SUITE enhances development efficiency in critical areas such as emission reduction and alternative fuel integration.
Operational Efficiency
The industry faces increasing pressure to improve fleets and ports operational efficiency and reduce emissions and costs while ensuring compliance with the industry standards.
By leveraging the power of GT-SUITE, it is possible to create a complete ship simulation, including propulsion, energy/thermal management, and aftertreatment, to holistically optimize overall ship system performance. The extensive model library enables the testing of various ship system designs.
System Integration & Commissioning
Safety and the avoidance of downtime are mission-critical targets for all stakeholders, especially with the adoption of novel technologies and control strategy concepts.
GT-SUITE’s multi-physics platform enables the virtual commissioning of marine systems and control strategies, allowing faults to be identified and resolved early in the design phase within a safe virtual environment. By achieving robust system designs through physics-based simulation, the need for extensive physical testing is minimized, significantly reducing development costs while ensuring reliable system and control performance.
Digitalization
There is a pressing need for innovation in the marine industry through the implementation of advanced digital solutions. Technologies like Digital Twin and Machine Learning drive alternative fuel adoption, improve system performance, and boost operational efficiency and sustainability.
GT-SUITE's multi-physics, model-based approach empowers the creation of digital twins for vessels, individual components, and integrated systems. These digital twins enable shipowners and developers to conduct real-time simulations, predict faults, and anticipate maintenance needs, ensuring operational efficiency.
GT SOLUTIONS FOR MARINE INDUSTRY
Marine developers and engineers are exploring the wider use of alternative fuels. Hydrogen, ammonia and methanol require different levels of care and selection of different turbochargers and other design changes to minimize fuel consumption and costs.
Methanol, with its high heat of vaporization, impacts the gas exchange process due to charge cooling effects. Accurate estimation of the fuel evaporation and fuel film transport is critical for proper fuel system control, especially during transients or cold start operation. GT-SUITE provides predictive spray and film evaporation models to optimize methanol injection and combustion, ensuring efficient performance.
Although Ammonia is carbon-free, it is still prone to high NOx formation during combustion and has a low flame speed, often requiring blending with hydrogen or dual-fuel configurations. GT-SUITE’s Advanced Combustion Toolset (ACT), along with predictive pre-chamber combustion models and dual-fuel modeling capabilities, helps engineers address these challenges. Additionally, its chemical kinetics solutions enable accurate predictions of NOx emissions, allowing for the exploration of optimized ammonia combustion strategies
Engine modelling and optimization tools in GT-SUITE & GT-POWER xRT help to design engines for net-zero carbon fuels with significant time and cost reduction. Engineers can also implement Digital Twin and Machine Learning models to use real time ship data to predict maintenance requirements or diagnose potential issues before they lead to failures during operations at sea.
Relevant GT Solutions:
- GT-SUITE
- GT-POWER xRT
- Machine Learning Assistant
- Advanced Combustion Toolset
Gamma Technologies provides a unified platform for exhaust aftertreatment and chemical systems with GT-xCHEM, a powerful tool for designing and analyzing efficient, reliable propulsion systems while reducing costs and accelerating time-to-market.
GT-xCHEM offers advanced capabilities for modeling complex exhaust aftertreatment layouts and CO₂ capture and storage systems. Its high-fidelity thermal and chemical models address hybridization challenges and ensure compatibility with alternative fuels, enabling engineers to tackle the unique demands of modern propulsion systems.
Through co-simulation with engine and propulsion systems, GT-xCHEM facilitates the optimized design of emissions mitigation technologies for all types of propulsion systems. This integrated, multi-physics approach ensures compliance with stringent regulations while enhancing fuel efficiency and overall system performance.
Relevant GT Solutions:
Ship batteries are becoming essential components of modern vessels. GT-SUITE systems simulation solution addresses the challenges of battery design, integration, sizing, and thermal management. For a more detailed modelling of marine batteries, cell designers and OEMs rely on GT-AutoLion, the industry-leading lithium-ion battery simulation software. Using a fast and reliable physics-based approach, GT-AutoLion predicts performance, degradation, ageing, and safety for any Lithium-ion cell.
Relevant GT Solutions:
GT-SUITE offers advanced modeling capabilities for Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) and Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) technologies, addressing key challenges in fuel cell and powertrain design. It maximizes efficiency and minimizes aging through fully predictive, physics-based models integrated with flow, thermal, electrical, and control systems. To minimize total cost of ownership, it employs empirical aging models and optimal control strategies using the Integrated Design Optimizer with genetic search algorithms. Integration time is significantly reduced with real-time solutions for controls calibration.
The platform enables seamless balancing of fuel cell and battery sizing and power with optimization and Design of Experiments (DOE) capabilities, including Equivalent Consumption Minimization Strategy (ECMS), to explore powertrain performance under real-world conditions. Safe and effective fuel storage and processing are supported by cryogenic and multiphase solutions.
GT-SUITE supports the modeling of fuel reformers for hydrocarbon fuels such as methane, ethanol, methanol, and ammonia, as well as the ammonia cracking process.
For PEM fuel cells, water and thermal management solutions predict and mitigate challenges like dry-out, flooding, overheating, and icing. With these capabilities, GT-SUITE empowers engineers to design robust, efficient fuel cell systems and powertrains for real-world applications.
GT-SUITE also incorporates physical solutions for stack and system components, enabling precise modeling to predict and mitigate operational challenges across the fuel cell system.
Relevant GT Solutions:
Driven by the increasing environmental concerns and regulations, the shipping industry is transitioning towards hybrid propulsion systems and power supply architectures. There are several challenges that marine developers face:
– identification of an optimal combination of technologies to meet the performance goals
– estimation of the correct sizing of the components for seamless integration
– development of effective power and energy management strategies, including control logic for energy distribution.
GT-SUITE offers model resolution ranging from 0D to 3D calculations. This allows the engineers to design or retrofit vessels’ propulsion systems and optimize power distribution logic, which result in improved efficiency, longevity, and adaptability. By using the systems simulation solutions marine developers can save time and money on physical testing, reduce production costs, and improve the reliability of the hybrid propulsion systems.
Relevant GT Solutions:
GT-SUITE offers powerful simulation capabilities for modeling microgrids, addressing the unique energy challenges of marine vessels and supporting decarbonization efforts.
By integrating multiple energy sources—such as batteries, fuel cells, gensets, solar, and wind energy —GT-SUITE helps find the optimal topology for ship propulsion, auxiliary systems, and shore power solutions for ports. The platform enables the seamless integration of these sources, including DC power from batteries and fuel cells, and DC-AC power from renewable sources, ensuring efficient power management.
GT-SUITE supports automated topology creation and optimization, optimizing the sizing of converters (DC-DC) and inverters (DC-AC) to balance energy demands while reducing capital (CAPEX) and operational (OPEX) costs. The system also addresses power quality issues, integrating electric components with control systems to mitigate harmonics and ensure reliable, safe operation.
By simulating the performance of different energy sources and optimizing their usage, GT-SUITE aids in the design of efficient, sustainable microgrids.
These systems lower fuel consumption, enhance energy independence, and support the electrification of vessels and ports, contributing significantly to the decarbonization of the maritime sector.
Relevant GT Solutions:
Marine operations involve highly dynamic and complex systems, requiring sophisticated simulation and modeling capabilities to create accurate digital twins.
Digital twins create real-time virtual replicas of ships, ports, or entire fleets, offering unmatched insights into system performance, maintenance requirements, and operational efficiency.
By leveraging GT-SUITE’s Digital Twin capabilities, the developers can:
- Increase asset and operator safety
- Predict component failures that require shorter maintenance time
- Optimize powertrain utilization online and offline which, in turn, leads to reduction in operational costs in fuel and emissions.
- Increase of revenue opportunities due to value-added services to owners and operators, leveraging real-time operational insights and enhanced performance data.
Relevant GT Solutions:
GT MARINE SOLUTIONS USE CASES
A Modular Simulation Platform for Rapid and Automated Configuration of 2-Stroke Marine Engine GT-POWER Models
Data-based Methods for the Efficient Development of
Large Bore Engine for Sustainable Fuels
Lithium-ion Battery Combined Electrochemical and Thermal Modeling Techniques and Assumptions
VIEW MORE MARINE INDUSTRY CONTENT
The path to decarbonization of the marine industry relies on the successful implementation a mix of versatile technologies by manufacturers. Each marine vessel has unique challenges that can be addressed with the help of multi-physics systems simulation software. Download the brochure and find out how GT-SUITE’s virtual testing capabilities can help solve your company’s engineering challenges.
Maritime transport is the backbone of international trade, carrying over 80% of the volume of global goods. As the industry faces mounting pressures—from stringent environmental regulations to the integration of alternative fuels and hybrid propulsion systems—the complexity of marine vessels continues to grow. This eBook will cover the extensive simulation capabilities offered by Gamma Technologies for marine systems
Fuel Consumption and Emission Prediction
- Development and Evaluation of the Predictive Capabilities of a Dual-Fuel Combustion Model with Methanol or Hydrogen in a Medium Speed Large Bore Engine (2023), Jeroen Dierickx & Sebastian Verhelst Ghent University, Luc Mattheeuws & Koen Christianen Anglo Belgian Corporation (ABC Engines), Karsten Stenzel WTZ Rosslau, SAE Journal Article 2023-24-0008
- Operating a Single-Cylinder Engine with a Multi-Cylinder Engine 1D-Model in the Loop with Real-Time Combustion Feedback, (2023),
André Ahlskog, Martin Nylund, Tom Kaas, Jari Hyvönen and Ben Smulter, Wärtsilä Corporation - Experimental and Numerical Investigation of the Ignition Process in a Large Bore Dual Fuel Engine (2021), Federico Millo, Francesco Accurso and Andrea Piano Politecnico di Torino, Gennaro Caputo Wartsila Italia S.p.A.,Alberto Cafari and Jari Hyvönen Wartsila Finland OY, Fuel 290.
- Development and Integration of Fine-Tuned Ignition Delay and Laminar Flame Speed Models for Improved 1D Simulation of Dual-Fuel Engines Powered by Ammonia and Diesel (2023), Niccolò Fiorini and Lapo Cheli,Yanmar Holdings Co., Ltd.
Fuel Cell & Reformer:
- On the layout of Hydrogen Storage System using GT-SUITE (2022), Kilian Förner Faurecia
- Modeling and analysis of direct internal reforming in ethanol-fueled SOFC (2024), Deivanayagam Hariharan, Bhaskar Sarkar, and Santhosh Gundlapally, Emergency Management Science and Technology 4.
Battery:
- Test and Analysis Driven Approach to Design of Safe and Reliable Battery Systems (2022), Will Walker and C. Waldo, KULR Technology
- Using Multi-physics System Simulation to Predict Battery Pack Thermal Performance and Risk of Thermal Runaway During eVTOL Aircraft Operations (2019), Jonathan Harrison, Devin Charles, Jon Zenker and Evan Frank, AIAA Propulsion and Energy 2019 Forum.
Microgrids:
- H2 storage solutions as backup for power demand in grid disruption events: a case study, (2023), Stefano De Luca, PowerCell Group
- Integration of Fuel Cells and Electrolysers in Powergrid Applications, (2022), Stefan Bohatsch, PowerCell Group
Digital Twin:
- A Digital Twin to support the development of Advanced Thermal management Solution for Battery Electric Vehicles (2024),Afanasie Vinogradov, Politecnico di Torino
- An Evaluation of an Unhealthy Part Identification Using a 0D-1D Diesel Engine Simulation Based Digital Twin (2022), Shakti Saurabh and Britant Sureka, Cummins Inc.
- Framework for Digital Twin Real-Time Battery System for Model-in-the-loop and Hardware-in-the- loop Simulations (2023), Harshad Pandit, Nikhil Biju, Vivek Pisharodi, Pantelis Dimitrakopoulos and Manish Shenoy, Gamma Technologies, IEEE Xplore: 25
- Real-World Predictive Maintenance and Fault Detection in Industrial Reciprocating Compressors for Digital Twin Environments (2023),
Gautham Ramchandran, Evangelia Konstantopoulou, Takis Koutsivitis and Nils-Henning Framke, Gamma Technologies - A Framework to Assure the Trustworthiness of Physical Model-Based Digital Twins for Marine Engines (2024), Jaehan Jeon and Gerasimos Theotokatos, Marine Science and Engineering.
- Development of a digital twin for real-time simulation of a combustion engine-based power plant with battery storage and grid coupling (2024), Emma Söderäng, Saana Hautala, Maciej Mikulski, Xiaoguo Storm, Seppo Niemi, Energy Conversion and Management.
- A novel methodology for marine dual fuel engines sensors diagnostics and health management (2021), Sokratis Stoumpos and Gerasimos Theotokatos, International Journal of Engine Research.
Gamma Technologies an Introduction to GT-SUITE for Marine Propulsion Applications
Webinar by: Gamma Technologies and WinGD
Gamma Technologies co-presented a webinar with WIN GD on “Multi-Physics Model-based Digital Twin for Marine Engineering with the Goal of De-carbonization.” Learn how WIN GD leverage GT-SUITE to meet the industry requirements from concept stage to in-service operation.
This webinar highlights topics such as:
- Application of digital twins for predictive maintenance & system performance optimization
- Integrated systems modelling
- Controls optimization
- Propulsion systems exploration & optimization
- Exploring the design space to quickly achieve optimal designs
- Exploration and identification of cost saving potential architectures
Simulation-Driven Engine and Drivetrain Development for Ship Modeling
Webinar by: Gamma Technologies and Yanmar R&D
Gamma Technologies co-presented a webinar with Yanmar R&D on engine & drivetrain development using the ship modeling approach in GT-POWER.
Leveraging Marine Propulsion System Through Multi-Physics Simulation
Webinar by: Gamma Technologies
This webinar, presented by Gamma Technologies’ own Michael Zagun (Staff Application Engineer, Mobility & System Integration) and Thomas Vevaud (Senior Application Engineer, Reactive Flow Systems), highlights the multi-objective optimization of a fuel-cell powered in-harbor tugboat propulsion under selected duty cycle and weather conditions. The dynamic and forward-facing multi-physics simulation model integrates a physics-based fuel cell/balance of plant (BOP) model and an electrical-equivalent energy storage (ESS) model offering realistic response dynamics. The optimal control solution, which is based on ECMS utilizes a kinematic backward-facing propulsion system model considering the system dynamics and constraints. The proposed modeling approach exploits the fuel-saving potential of each system design variant and thus offers significant design and workflow improvement.
1D-Fuel Cell System modelling for autonomous vessel using GT-SUITE
Webinar by: Bramble Energy (GTTC 2022)
Bramble Energy showcases how GT-SUITE is used for Modeling a Fuel Cell System for an Uncrewed Surface Vessel. GT-SUITE is the ideal platform for the analysis and optimization of fuel cell systems and their components. Combining industry-leading productivity tools and collaboration features with advanced multi-physics modeling capabilities, GT-SUITE can be used throughout the entire product development process. GT-SUITE integrates flow, thermal, chemical, and electrical solutions to enable complete modeling of the Balance of Plant and Vehicle Systems, such as air compression and humidification, hydrogen storage and recirculation, cooling systems, power management controls, and more.
Integration of Fuel Cells and Electrolysers in Powergrid Applications
Webinar by: PowerCell Group (GTTC 2022)
Powercell Group showcases how a powergrid model helped them to understand the situation, analyze different potential scenarios & possibilities at the Frankfurt GTTC 2022.
Some of the application highlights include:
1. Modeling of fuel-cell system configurations with GT-SUITE’s object-oriented model building architecture.
2. Design and selection of components such as fuel cell stacks, compressors, pumps, humidifiers, ejectors, heat exchangers, tanks, and more.
3. Optimization of water management, thermal, stoichiometry, and pressure controls. Drive-cycle analysis for power management and battery sizing to ensure drivability, fuel economy, and reliability.
4. Ability to operate at the proper combination of fidelity and speed to capture important transient effects, such as flooding, starvation, hot spots, and more.
Reducing Battery Thermal Runaway Risks Through Testing and Simulation
Webinar by: SAE with NASA & RISE
This 60-minute webinar provides an introduction to battery thermal runaway and then discusses how to understand thermal runaway through simulation testing. It also examines considerations for simulating thermal runaway heat loads and finding the optimal design to reduce thermal runaway through simulation. Two case studies (NASA Pack Model and RISE Test Comparison) are included.
GT Tech Talk Episode 10 – Fuel Reformer Simulation
In this episode, hosts Ahmed Abouhussein, PhD and Lalit Patidar, PhD are joined by Deivanayagam Hariharan (Staff Application Engineer, Reactive Flow Systems) and Harish Chhatija (Senior Engineer, Application Engineering) to discuss fuel reformer simulation!
For more information on GT Tech Talk and upcoming episodes, visit: https://www.gtisoft.com/gt-podcast/
Blog: Combining Measurements and Simulation to Streamline Combustion/Controls Development
Read the blog by GT’s Principal Application Engineer,Daniel Schimmel, on how combining measurements and simulation can revolutionize combustion and controls development for carbon-neutral fuels.