Cloud-based simulation of the lifetime of marine structures

ISONAVAL, an SME working in the areas of naval architecture and marine engineering services, is specialized in the generation of analysis and production information for ships, yachts and naval artefacts. Merchant ships (such as tankers and container ships) must undergo a standard strength assessment as a statutory requirement, and advanced simulation could be useful in standard strength assessment calculations. 

The challenge addressed in this experiment was to demonstrate the use of advanced simulation in standard strength assessments of merchant ships. Large amounts of computing power are required to complete these simulations in a reasonable time. The objective here was to adapt standard strength assessment software, RamSeries, to run on remote HPC resources, and demonstrate the benefits of advanced simulation using Cloud-based HPC for this purpose. 

The relevant software packages, including RamSeries, have been ported to an HPC-Cloud-based system and integrated into an overall simulation package. An effective interface between the end-user and the HPC resources has been implemented which integrates the various software components and the HPC system. The simulations have been benchmarked using a model of the full 3D hull structure of a merchant ship. These demonstrated a significant speed-up by a factor of 42 through the use of an HPC system.