Miros radar system optimises hull speed

As a part of a six month pilot, BW Dry Cargo is testing the new technology on its BW Rye newbuild. The initial results of the pilot are promising, with managing director, Christian Bonfils, estimating that the technology can bring fuel savings of 10%.

“Access to accurate speed through water data will enable improvements in the application of ship performance optimisation protocols,” explained Miros chief executive, Andreas Brekke.

“This, in turn, will lead to significant cost efficiencies for ship owners. This is a breakthrough in efficient and data-driven ship performance management and an important contribution to ambitious goals for lowering emissions in the industry,” he added.

Accurate speed through water measurements are essential for optimising performance, as well as avoiding operation at suboptimal speeds which can be costly. Using Miros’ X-band radar-based sensors mounted above the waterline is said to eliminate these issues whilst providing accurate and reliable measurement of a ship’s speed through water.

Miros estimates that the accuracy of Speed Through Water measurements for a vessel in transit is typically 5cm/s, whilst noise and disturbance from vessel motion and propellers can give speed logs variances of between 10cm/s and several m/s.