Tackling ship noise

BV Solutions M&O and TSI have signed a collaboration agreement to promote worldwide engineering services and solutions specialised in vibration and noise that can be applied during the design and operational phases of a ship to its delivery.

The companies said they are working together on “the design of ships with low environmental impact with the aim of reducing and mitigating the underwater radiated noise generated by the shipping activity as well as the airborne noise radiated to the ports”.

The partnership between BV Solutions M&O and TSI was formalised in July 2020, however, their first collaboration was 12 years ago, in the framework of the European R&D projects SILENV and BESST, where both institutions were involved on the characterisation of acoustic signatures of cruise ships and commercial vessels.

The organisations are able of characterise the acoustic behaviour of ships in transit through the quantification and analysis of underwater radiated noise generated during the operation stages. A Non-intrusive Cavitation Detection System (NiCDS) has been developed for autonomous detection of propeller cavitation based on the measurement of vibrations transmitted to the hull.

The installation of the NiCDS improves a ship’s acoustic signature due to the control of cavitation inception and the identification of undesired operating conditions.

Other advantages include the extension of the service life from the elements affected by the cavitation phenomena such as the propeller and rudder; control of the cavitation intensity with precision; suppression of vibrations derived from the inception of cavitation, improving the comfort levels on board of the ship; and optimisation of fuel consumption thanks to the improvement of the ship performance.

By Rebecca Jeffrey