The Application of Integrated Computing Technology to theDesign, Construction and Lifecycle Support of Warships

Roy Metcalfe, AVEVA Solutions Ltd., UK ARTICLEREPRINT

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1. Introduction

In many countries, particularly westerncountries, the spiralling costs of warships, andthe time taken to bring them into front-lineservice, frequently make headline news. Fewerwarships are being ordered, so lengtheninggaps between design contracts have eroded theavailability of experienced designers andspecialist engineers and increasedinternational competition for export contracts.Increasingly complex designs lead to anincreasing need both for effective ways ofmanaging multi-site collaborative shipbuildingprojects and for managing the resulting vastand complex information asset that a warshipembodies. Current computing technologies,combined from both the shipbuilding and plantengineering industries, offer effective andreliable means of overcoming these challenges.

2. The Nature of the Problem

Naval shipbuilding combines severalcharacteristics that make it uniquelychallenging. It is a class of one-off capitalproject processes where physical prototyping isnot feasible. It is a highly complex process,involving numerous active participants andstakeholders, multiple technologies, andspecifications which, unlike in commercialpractice, frequently change during the project.It is impractical to de-risk a warship project toanything like the extent demanded incommercial shipbuilding.

With defence budgets under increasingpressure, warship life extension becomesincreasingly essential, but the asbuilt designstatus of older vessels is frequently not welldefined and the Computer-Aided Design (CAD)tools used – if indeed they were used at all – arenow obsolescent.

3. The Nature of the Solution

The general-purpose CAD applicationsemployed in the ‘volume’ manufacturingindustries are not optimal for capital projectsand certainly not for shipbuilding.

There are today only a few solutions whichserve the specific needs of shipbuilding andonly one which can not only support the entirevessel lifecycle, but can do so optimally in thenaval context. There are many features of theintegrated AVEVA solution which combine toachieve this and this paper provides anoverview of the principal ones, how they meetvarious technical needs and how they form acomplete ‘closed-loop’ solution for the modernwarship.

In the design stage, naval architecture,structural and outfitting designs arespecialized disciplines that require purpose-designed software which embody ship designexpertise. Marine steelwork design, forexample, is quite different from onshoresteelwork. Extensive rule-based design isnecessary, to mitigate skill shortages andenable the efficient creation of high-qualitydesign which leads to downstream savings inconstruction. Combining this with ‘intelligence’– the ability of individual parts to retain thedesign intent while the overall design isevolving – helps to overcome one of the biggestchallenges of naval shipbuilding: continuallychanging requirements in response to changingthreats, technologies, political pressures andresource availabilities.

The information asset built up as the designevolves should be exploited to its fullest extentright across the project. It should enableeffective design visualisation andcommunication between different disciplinesand stakeholders. It should enable theplanning and execution of an optimumfabrication and construction sequence makinguse of the yard facilities available. It shouldalso deliver a variety of outputs, derived from asingle definitive ship model, in diverse formatsand information content to suit the particularshipbuilding technologies and workingpractices employed. An effective system mustalso support project management byidentifying and managing all of the materials,bought-in equipment and on-board systems.Overall, it must support much faster and betterdesign while reducing dependence on scarce,specialist design and engineering resources.

This paper discusses the role thatcomputing technology can play inincreasing the productivity andcompetitiveness of naval shipbuilding toreduce costs and time, provide designersand engineers with more efficient toolsand workflows, and mitigate skillshortages. In addition it will be shownthat integrated technology enables rapidand efficient evaluation of differentdesign options, implementation of late-emerging specification changes and theminimising of through-life costs. Thetechnology also enables efficient captureand exploitation of as-built designdefinition, facilitating efficient refits,conversions and life extension projects.

Reprinted from the proceedings of the Warship 2010 conference: Advanced Technologies in NavalDesign and Construction, London, UK by kind permission of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects.

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The complexity of a modern warship demands efficient collaboration andcommunication between many subcontractors and equipment suppliers.This requires a very specific technology solution. Powerful technology isalso necessary to manage the status and collaborative use of documentsand data, the volume and complexity of which have increased with thegrowing complexity of warships and their weapon systems, legislationand environmental considerations. Software tools are now available tointegrate disparate data of all types, and to allow project participants toaccess this data in a managed manner. This rich data asset evolves as thedesign progresses and must be readily exploited for commissioning,operational, through-life support and eventual recycling.

Lastly, refits, conversions and life extension are regular stages of awarship’s service life. To perform these efficiently and economicallydemands accurate knowledge of the current state of the warship. Laserscanning technology is now available that enables the rapid, accurateand finely-detailed 3D surveying of a warship. Importing this data into a3D design system can enable the efficient design modification orintegration of new equipment and the generation of the necessaryproduction data.

4. AVEVA Marine - Integrated Engineering and Design Technology

AVEVA Marine was developed by integrating the strengths of Tribon,particularly its hull structural capabilities, with those of AVEVA PDMS foroutfitting definition and with a number of other specialist applicationsoriginally developed for the plant industries. With its progenitors longestablished as best-in-class solutions in their respective fields and nowintegrated onto the unique Dabacon database, which has a lengthyservice record in the capital engineering industries, AVEVA Marineprovides comprehensive, proven capabilities for shipbuilders. Thesecapabilities have been developed to meet the demands of the commercialsector for maximum productivity at every stage of a project. As a result,they can also deliver corresponding benefits in naval application, withthe additional advantage of an extensive and established user communitythroughout the global shipbuilding industry. The extent of this user basenot only ensures that the continuing development of AVEVA Marine isinformed by the needs and suggestions of shipbuilders in everyspecialism, it also provides the largest possible resource base on whichwarship procurement can draw. It is often found that the flexibility toplace work anywhere within a sizable resource pool provides economicbenefits which outweigh those achievable through individual technicaladvances in specific areas.

Within AVEVA Marine are many individual discipline based designapplications for hull form design, hydrostatic and hydrodynamic designanalysis, hull structure, equipment, piping, ventilation, electrical,instrumentation and accommodation design. Importantly, all theseindividual applications are integrated. They share a common databaseholding a single definitive model of the entire vessel to which all userscan have access. This enables effective collaborative working betweenengineering and design specialists from all disciplines. Many interfaceissues, which might otherwise require elevating to programmemanagement level, can be resolved quickly between designers at thedetail level. Moreover, the database architecture provides an audit trail ofthese detailed design adjustments so that decisions may be reviewed, andthe design even ‘rolled back’, at any time.

Information about the many individual applications in AVEVA Marine isreadily available elsewhere. This paper concentrates on those which meetthe principal needs of current warship procurement and fleetmanagement, and are described in timeline order of the vessel lifecycle.

4.1 Design, Refine, Reuse

The two cornerstones of efficient ship design and building are the use ofthe best tools for original work and the ability to reuse previous designs.In many instances, the latter provides the greatest economic benefit, soAVEVA Marine enables legacy designs from Tribon to be quickly upgradedor variants of a lead ship to be efficiently developed from the originaldesign.

Whether starting from scratch or adapting an earlier design, it isimportant that an engineer or designer be able to concentrate on thedesign intent without becoming bogged down in unnecessary detail. Toachieve this, extensive parametric, rule-based design definition methodsare provided so that detail features are generated or updatedautomatically and will comply with applicable requirements. Becausewarship design invariably involves repeated and frequent design changes,avoiding the need to manually recreate the many dependent changessaves considerable time and effort. It also eliminates sources of error,which can give rise to costly problems in subsequent stages of theproject. A typical instance where this facility increases efficiency wouldbe in repositioning a bulkhead to increase the size of a compartment. Thedesigner can simply drag the bulkhead to its new position and allassociated geometry and deliverables will automatically update. Wherethis would give rise to an ‘illegal’ design feature, the error is immediatelyhighlighted.

4.2 Space Management

During the early stages of designing a warship there are manyrequirements relating to the layout. Compartments need to be arrangedto meet various functional and operational requirements and theboundaries between them specified. Other spaces must also be defined,for example, spaces running through multiple compartments forinterconnecting pipes, cables or ventilation ducts. Spaces must beallocated for machinery and equipment, or reserved for access. Each ofthese will have particular design requirements such as fire resistance.

Current warship design practice often employs a spreadsheet-basedsystem to handle information such as weights, centres of gravity,attributes and so on, and a general-purpose CAD tool to create a two-dimensional (2D) layout drawing of each deck. Only when the designdefinition has reached a considerable level of maturity is it thendeveloped further in a three-dimensional (3D) system. Experienceddesigners envisage the design in 3D from the outset, but 2D drawingslimit their ability to share all the relevant information with otherdesigners and disciplines. This would be an inefficient enough approacheven for simple designs; for a complex warship it is a serious handicap.AVEVA Marine therefore provides an easy-to-use capability to enable 3Ddesign definition from the beginning of the design process.

A warship design must be sub-divided into numerous spatial structuresclassified in different ways: by zone, by compartment, by systems and bybuild strategy. It is also important to obtain statistical analysis of the

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developing design to evaluate and compare different design options, forfunction, for services, for work content and for costs. In AVEVA Marine, a3D Common Reference Model is created, forming the foundation used byall design disciplines and which is developed through all phases of thedesign. The geometric entities defining the spaces are created using asimple sketching tool, or by reference to plane or sculptured surfaces andgeneral volume primitives. The boundary of a space can be a physicalboundary such as a deck or bulkhead, or a logical boundary such asbetween two surface coating areas. Early geometry does not need to beprecise; for example the hull surface can be quite simple. Complex shapedspaces are created by combining and subtracting simpler spaces. Thesespaces are connected topologically so that, as more precise informationbecomes available, updates and design changes may be made easily withgeometry data being recreated automatically.

Figure 1: Multi-discipline concurrent working adding more detail to reserved spaces asinformation becomes available.

Spaces within spaces form a hierarchy. This is represented in AVEVAMarine by a familiar tree structure that can be used to find, highlight andaccess particular spaces within the geometric model. All spaces canreport on their geometries and topology, such as which space is on theother side of a boundary, or in which space is a given point located. Thespace can also be identified via a symbolic (i.e. not to scale) backdroplayout drawing on a schematic diagram. Warships typically have the most,and the most complex arrangement of, spaces found in marine design,making these capabilities particularly valuable for that reason alone. Buttheir value is further increased by the need to make often substantialdesign changes, often quite late in the programme. Because designdetails are automatically created from the Common Reference Model,changes to this model automatically update the details. Compare thiswith conventional practice of manually changing all associated designdata.

As the design progresses and equipment, pipelines, cables and so on arepositioned, spaces can be interrogated and lists generated of all objectswithin each space. Their various properties can be accessed, for exampleto obtain their total heat output, weights and so on. Fire zones can bespecified to the appropriate SOLAS classifications and the correctinsulation is added automatically to the relevant bulkheads and decks.Build strategy options can be created, compared and refined to optimisework breakdown structure for fabrication and installation, with workcontent and surface treatment areas automatically derived from theCommon Reference Model.

The Common Reference Model forms a foundation for the integration ofthe various design processes. This ensures that all designers anddisciplines are working on consistent and up-to-date data, therebyshortening design time.

4.3 Design Analysis and Data Exchange

AVEVA Marine includes a comprehensive range of analysis functions suchas hydrostatics and hydrodynamics, enabling all the principal designtasks to be carried out within the integrated environment. However,there are limits; warships have specific requirements and criteria, such asanalysis of radar signature or vulnerability, which must be met byspecialist third-party solutions, while there will always be a customerneed or preference for particular tools for certain tasks. For such reasons,AVEVA Marine includes extensive facilities for neutral-format dataexchange. It can, for example, import hull forms created in othersystems, export the hull shape to third-party Computational FluidDynamic analysis systems and transfer data directly to the approvalprocesses of leading Classification Societies. Working with a number ofGerman shipyards, AVEVA has also recently developed Element (FE)analysis of hull structure.

4.4 Productivity, Accurcy and Quality

For an efficient project, it is essential that the software tools be bothhighly productive and closely integrated; either alone is not sufficient.This becomes even more important the more complex the vessel designand there is an inexorable trend towards ever larger and more complexships, both in naval and commercial sectors. AVEVA Marine has been developed specifically in anticipation of thisneed. Integration now permits, for example, an outfitting designer tocollaborate directly with a hull structure designer so that hullpenetrations for piping or equipment access can be negotiated directly. Ifa subsequent design change is made, say moving a bulkhead, theresulting impact on the outfitting design is immediately highlighted andthe induced errors remain visible and reported on until rectified.Practising warship designers will appreciate the value of this functionalintegration as they struggle to optimise highly complex and denselypacked layouts.

While the individual design applications in AVEVA Marine are, naturally,powerful and easy to use, they are supported by a range of less visible butequally important functions that exploit the design data created. Forexample, functions for the generation of drawings and other deliverablesare extensive and highly automated. This provides two importantbenefits. First, the accuracy of the information is assured as it is deriveddirectly from the single digital model. Second, it enables the mostcomprehensive detailed production information to be generated withminimal direct effort. This is particularly important where productionwork is placed with shipyards which may be less familiar with warshippractice or the specific requirements of the customer and need a higherlevel of detail in the information provided. Because there is today lesscontinuity of work for specialist naval shipyards, this capability helps tomitigate the resulting erosion of skills.

Accuracy throughout the design and production processes is essentialbecause its absence costs time and money. This need is served in threeways. First, by exploiting the inbuilt ‘intelligence’ of the individual partsso that associations are retained while design alterations are being made(for example, an equipment mounting point on the structure isassociated with the equipment item.) Second, by individual applicationsembodying specific process knowledge (for example, piping designcreates bending machine data which correctly allows for parameters such

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as bend spring-back.) Third, the extensive geometry data contained inthe digital model is exploited in various ways to enable accurate assemblyjigging, part location, block alignment, structural accuracy measurementand so on.

Quality embraces accuracy but is also concerned with design fitness forpurpose. This is addressed by the use of rule-based tools which constraina designer’s freedom within boundaries determined by suchconsiderations as manufacturability, applicable standards, accessibility,and so on. Although in practice the particularly challenging nature ofwarship design often requires deviations from ideal design, this approachenables a design evolution to start out in an ideal manner and forsubsequent ‘rule bending’ to be carried out in an informed and readilyvisible manner. A typical example of this is in the provision of access toequipment; it is often simply not possible to provide ideal access in thelimited space available. Automatic clash checking will reveal whereobstruction volumes have been penetrated, even where these might behard to see in a complex design. The nature of the clash can be reviewedand an audit trail kept of its resolution. Importantly, because of theintegrated nature of AVEVA Marine, this clash management capabilityextends across disciplines, so that it can automatically reveal where anequipment item’s accessibility volume has been compromised by adjacenthull structure.

Figure 2: Clashes like this example are highlighted, reported, and managed with a fullrectification audit trail.

4.5 Integrating Systems Engineering

Systems engineering commences at a very early stage in the ship designprocess. Warships in particular require very many schematic diagrams tobe created by the ship designers and by a multitude of suppliers such asweapons, sensor or machinery suppliers. Two capabilities are essential:accommodating the use of a variety of different schematics design toolsand integrating systems information with the rest of the design. AVEVAMarine includes suitable schematics applications but also enables the useof diagrams created from multiple alternative applications which complywith ISO 15926. From whichever source, AVEVA Marine enables theimporting and integration of schematics diagrams into a complete vessel-wide systems definition within the project database. Extensive automaticchecks are made for potential inconsistencies which can then becorrected immediately. A new format of schematic is generated, called aConnectivity Diagram, which shows all of the connections to individualequipment items. This is an innovative capability, useful both in thedesign process and potentially in the warship’s operations.

Figure 3: A Connectivity Diagram generated from schematic diagrams.

Integrating schematics information is only one level of integrationhowever; the systems must be integrated into the rest of the vessel. Toenable this, AVEVA has also developed Schematic 3D Integrator which usesdiagrammatic information to automatically populate the ship’s 3D modelwith the equipment, interconnecting pipes and cables and their fittings.This saves considerable design effort and eliminates many potentialsources of error. The resulting 3D layout remains associated with itsschematic design, which remains the definitive system description. Anysubsequent inconsistencies introduced are immediately highlighted andreported on, and their resolution recorded by an audit trail.

Automatic rule-based pipe and cable routing is used to create efficientinitial layouts. The resulting detailed routes and positions of fittings canthen be modified interactively, for example for ease of access to otherequipment. Cable routing is also informed by rules which segregate cablesby type and by cable tray fill level.

One valuable benefit arising from schematics/3D integration is that thiscan avoid the need for two different designers to complete the design.Hitherto, a systems design engineer often passed responsibility for the3D detailed design to the drawing office. The rule based 3D designprocesses now enable the same designer to progress the design into the3D environment, saving time and enabling more flexible working.

Figure 4: Pipes routed automatically in 3D from information from the diagram. The routingis user defined and rule based. Any clashes (penetrations) are highlighted and the pipescan be modified interactively.

The combination of extensive integration, rule-based designing andautomated output generation creates a major opportunity to redefine thedesign processes to make better use of increasingly scarce experiencedengineering resources.

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4.6 Equipment Integration

The ability to specify and design the many conventional materials anditems that make up a ship is only part of the process of warship design. Tothese must be added a great many unique items such as weapon systems,radars, sonar, operations room equipment and so on, all of which isprovided by specialist contractors using various mechanical CAD (MCAD)applications. The inability to exchange 3D design information betweendifferent systems has long been a serious handicap to design integration.In warship design, equipment integration is often one of the most seriouscauses of delays and cost overruns because major equipment items suchas weapon systems are often developed concurrently with the vesselitself.

To overcome this problem, AVEVA provides a STEP 203 compliant interfacefor the bi-directional exchange of 3D models with third-party MCADsystems such as Pro/Engineer, SolidWorks or Inventor. Such models maybe simplified prior to export to remove any unnecessary details or anyclassified or proprietary information.

Once imported into an AVEVA Marine project, equipment models becomenative AVEVA Outfitting objects. They can interact fully with all the otherobjects in the warship project model and carry a wide range of importantattributes, such as weight, centre of gravity and heat output values. Theywill also appear in all relevant design and production deliverables such asgeneral arrangement drawings, Bills of Material and so on. Importantly,these models can be used by all AVEVA applications; for example they canbe shared across multiple-location project teams using AVEVA Global, andused by AVEVA Review for visualization and realistic animation of taskssuch as installation and removal or the handling of movable objects suchas aircraft, torpedoes or missiles. Conversely, the interface may be used to export a local 3D model of partof the warship for a supplier to use as a space envelope within which todesign the equipment. This capability saves time in re-creating models,avoiding potential transcription errors, and complements the moreformal, programme-level interface management processes.

AVEVA Mechanical Equipment Interface extends design integration morewidely across the project’s supplier base. It eliminates wasteful and error-prone replication of designs that already exist, and reduces project risksby facilitating the rapid integration of accurate, detailed and up-to-datemodels of the large number of third-party items which populate awarship.

4.7 Managing Design Status

While developing the design of a warship, it is essential that all creatorsand users of design information know the maturity status of all items, toavoid the inadvertent reliance on interim design data that is still subjectto change. This is often exacerbated where designers are in differentlocations.

To overcome this, AVEVA Marine provides the capability to control andreport on the status of individual model objects as they progress throughtheir lifecycle. Status values can be applied to any object, such as anequipment item, a pipe-piece, a valve fitting or a plate piece-part, or anyinterim product, such as a subassembly in the warship’s work breakdownstrategy. Multiple status definitions can be applied to each object, for

example its design status, fabrication status, acquisition status,commissioning status and so on. Each status definition can hold a rangeof values, for example 50% complete, ready for checking and so on. Thesedefinitions and their values are specified to be compatible with theproject workflow and enable meaningful interrogations and managementreports. The ability to change status values is assignable by configurablepermission levels.

Status is an important element of workflow management. The change of aparticular status value can initiate a workflow event; for example, when adesign status is raised to “ready for checking” an email can be sentautomatically to the appropriate manager notifying that a particularaction is required. Similarly, the change of a pipe-piece’s status to“approved for production” can trigger the automatic creation of itsisometric drawing.

Status definition and particular values can also be colour coded withinthe 3D model for ease of visibility across the design team. This enables,for example, an outfitting designer struggling to integrate a complexinstallation into a confined space to immediately see which surroundinghull structure or other designers’ work has already reached a “frozen”status and which might still be amenable to change. Programmemanagers might also use this capability with dates to highlight objectswhich are overdue for approval, delivery or delayed in production.

4.8 Integrating the ‘Global Shipyard’

There is a growing requirement for collaborative warship projects. Thiscan be due to a ship being designed in one country and its constructionbeing contracted out to a lower-cost or more specialised yard in another,or an international project being split between two shipyards in differentcountries. The general shortage of experienced marine designers anddraughtsmen, combined with significant cost differentials, has alsocreated a market for overseas design companies.

To meet this need, an AVEVA Marine project can employ a collaborationsupport solution, AVEVA Global. Originally developed for large complexoffshore design projects, AVEVA Global enables project participants inmultiple locations to work concurrently on a single design. The customaryway to implement such multi-site projects is by duplicating the entiredatabase at each location, which introduces serious vulnerabilities andrequires high-capacity communication links. In contrast, Global workswith a single project database at a “hub” location which provides centralproject administration, and multiple satellite sites. Each site can work onits own portion of the design while having controlled access to otherportions as configured by the central administration. Data is not copiedbetween locations as in the traditional work-share approach. Eachsatellite site uses a local replication database, enabling work to continueoffline if necessary, with only design changes being transmitted. Thisminimises data traffic, enabling the use of Internet or low bandwidthcommunications, avoids project disruption, ensures that the entireproject is kept up to date and automatically synchronises any data thathas changed between project locations.

Importantly, satellite locations can be added or removed as the projectprogresses in response to changes in scope and workload. Robust andflexible configuration of access permissions enables individual projectparticipants to have only the level of access necessary to meetcontractual boundaries or security requirements. AVEVA Global is an

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example of a mature technology employed in the commercial sector whichcan bring well-proven capability and benefits to naval shipbuilding.

5. Applying Technology to Vessel Life Extension

The economic situation has obliged many countries to keep warshipsoperational much longer than anticipated, certainly beyond their originaldesigned life expectancy. Many older warships were designed in the pre-CAD era while some of the more recent warships were designed usingrelatively early MCAD systems which are not, in any event, optimal forsuch projects. Typically, these ships have been heavily modified over theyears, often with poor recording of the changes made. Although it ispossible to convert an MCAD design into AVEVA Marine, the quality of thedata and its relevance to the current state of the warship usually makesthis an uneconomic option.

In recent years, however, a technology solution has matured in the formof 3D laser scanning. This has been driven largely by the economicpressures of the offshore oil & gas industry, in which it is a frequentrequirement to upgrade and modify in-service production platforms withminimum downtime. Surveying these by traditional methods is costly,hazardous and not particularly accurate. Today, laser scanning isemployed extensively to capture precise and detailed as-built designstatus quickly, cheaply and safely. Contractors routinely use the 3D scandata to design replacement equipment which will fit accurately andinvolve the simplest possible boltin procedure. This technology is nowbeing applied on warships and can transform the economics of every sizeof refit project.

In use, any of a number of proprietary laser scanning systems and theirservice providers may be used. An engine room, for example, can bescanned within a few hours during a routine stop-over, or even whileunder way at sea if necessary. The resulting data, consisting of millions of3D coordinates known as a point cloud, will be a precise representation ofthe engine room. It can then be transferred into AVEVA Marine, useddirectly for redesign tasks, and shared or manipulated like other objects.

Objects can be remodelled using the point cloud data to obtain actualmeasurements and accurate locations. The system can interrogate thepoint cloud, recognize the pattern of data points forming a tube-likeshape and replacing these with an AVEVA Marine pipe of the correctdiameter. It can similarly identify structural profile shapes within thepoint-cloud and replace these with the corresponding model object. Suchreverse engineering avoids the need to try and keep the as designedmodel up to date throughout the life of the warship. Two particularlyimportant capabilities are that clashes are highlighted between newdesign objects and the point cloud, and that the point cloud may beinterrogated directly to measure distances between features. This givesonshore design engineers a form of “telepresence” whereby they can beworking with an accurate representation of the real vessel just as if theywere actually on board.

Figure 5: A new pump, hose reel and interconnecting pipe modelled within the laser-scanned point cloud. Clashes can be highlighted between the modelled objects and thepoint cloud.

The accuracy, cheapness and efficiency of laser scanning encourage itswide and innovative use. For example, when planning a major propulsionrefit, one could integrate the supplier’s accurate MCAD model, importedvia the STEP interface, with a laser scanned model of the engine room andits access. The engine model may be moved progressively along itsproposed installation route through the laser model of the actual engineroom. Any potential clashes between the two will be highlighted.

Figure 6: This is not a photograph but a so-called Bubble View generated from laser scandata. Note the newly defined AVEVA Marine pipe and valve with clash highlighted in redbetween the valve operating space and the pipe insulation.

5. Integrating Information - AVEVA NET

Designing and building a warship involves a vast quantity of informationof many different types in addition to engineering and design data.Moreover, to meet demanding schedule and cost constraints, the projectstages must be as concurrent as possible. Commercial shipbuildingpractice has brought this approach to a high level of efficiency, with alldownstream activities, including fabrication and assembly, beginning assoon as mature iterations of the design they are based on becomeavailable. Naval shipbuilding, however, is characterised by high levels oftechnical risk and design revision and working with incorrect or out-of-date information can seriously degrade project efficiency. It is thereforeessential to control all design iterations, their status and their

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availability to project participants. To achieve this, a shipbuildingsolution must not only tightly integrate all of the design authoringsystems used on the project, it must also control the flow, integrity andquality of project data across organisational boundaries, and manage theproject workflows. Workflow management that delivers the rightinformation at the right time to the right people can save time, eliminatewasteful duplication of tasks and optimise resource loading, increasingoverall project efficiency.

Integrating all of a warship’s project information demands a particularlypowerful technology platform. Here again, commercial pressures havegiven rise to effective information management solutions which areimmediately applicable to naval shipbuilding.

AVEVA NET provides a platform for integrating, managing and exploitingevery type of information throughout a warship’s entire lifecycle. It takesdocuments from any source, analyses their content and automaticallyestablishes cross-references between them. Model data from differentCAD systems are imported via appropriate gateways. These models can beintegrated with other model data, displayed and the data within themodels accessed, without requiring the original authoring software(albeit the authoring software would be needed to make changes to thedata.) Electronic format 2D drawings and schematic diagrams are alsoimported via an appropriate gateway. Other types of document, such asphotographs, or equipment manuals and certificates in Microsoft Word,Excel or Adobe Acrobat format, are also imported by AVEVA NET. Thesediverse documents are linked automatically and appropriately via the tagreference used for their associated equipment, fittings and so on. Wherea supplier uses a different tag nomenclature to the warship designers,alias names are used to make the links. Paper drawings and documentsare scanned electronically and information extracted by a process knownas document scraping to enable the automatic linking. This provides ahigh level of granularity; it is not just the individual documents that aremanaged and accessed but the data contained within them.

Key data management requirements include:

• A secure, globally accessible, collaborative environment for documents • A master repository of documents, with backup • The ability to handle different CAD formats • The ability to view and control documents of all formats, including

paper, without needing the originating software • Robust change control of documents • Mark-up of documents in a collaborative environment

Figure 7: AVEVA NET: Enterprise Explorer is used to find a particular object; ContentExplorer to discover all documents associated with the selected object and Content Viewerto visualize a document.

Industry-standard ERP systems are able to exchange data with AVEVA NETand vice versa; AVEVA NET has recently become SAP-certified. An exampleof how AVEVA NET interfaces with SAP can be illustrated by the workprocess involved in servicing a pump. The information associated with thepump itself is engineering information, but the information as to who isqualified to work on that particular pump and what the rest of theirworkload looks like on that day almost certainly comes from acombination of other applications within the ERP system. A work orderwould be raised in SAP while the necessary engineering informationrelating to the pump would be obtained from AVEVA NET.

AVEVA NET is used within the ship design and building processes to linkdata and provide the necessary access to it. Significant time and costsavings are obtained in the shipbuilding stages, but the data can also beused to accelerate the commissioning of the warship. Once the vessel is inservice, integrating a subset of the engineering data with maintenancedata, creates an information base for through-life support activities. Theability to continually manage, share and exploit an integrated,comprehensive and reliable information asset is a key requirement inminimising warship cost of ownership and maximising its availability.

7. End of Life

Attribute data from the design and building process forms the basis of the“green passport” requirements that are anticipated from theInternational Maritime Organisation and the European Union.Throughout the life of the ship, AVEVA NET may be used to maintainrecords relating to changes to the design and the disposition of toxic orhazardous substances. The 3D model of the warship and accurateknowledge of the locations and quantities of such substances enable theeventual recycling to be undertaken in a controlled, safe and regulatorycompliant manner.

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8. Conclusion - The Closed-Loop Solution

In summary, this paper has outlined how three commercially available,powerful and widely used technologies form an integrated solutionproviding effective closed-loop control of the entire warship lifecycle,from initial specification through to end-of-life recycling. Such capabilityis essential not only to maximise efficiency in naval procurement andfleet management, but also to mitigate skills shortages by exploiting thebuilt-in expertise within dedicated shipbuilding solutions.

• AVEVA Marine provides a powerful, comprehensive and tightlyintegrated solution set for warship design and building. In addition toessential functions for naval architectural work, it provides uniquecapabilities in space management, systems engineering, dataexchange and support for collaborative multisite projects.

• Laser scanning is now a mature, inexpensive and readily employedtechnology for capturing as-built design data and enabling efficientredesign in support of every type of life extension project.

• AVEVA NET provides a robust and powerful technology platform forintegrating, managing, sharing and exploiting the entire informationasset embodied in a warship throughout every stage of its lifecycle.

Figure 8: A closed-loop solution, provided by integrating the design and productioncapabilities of AVEVA Marine with laser technology for as-built capture and AVEVA NET forhandling all project information and workflows.

Widely used around the world in the demanding commercial shipbuildingand offshore industries, these are proven to deliver significant economic,technical and operational benefits. Corresponding benefits are alsoachievable in naval shipbuilding, even though project risk is inevitablyhigher than in commercial practice.

Applying these technologies to new warship design and building, thebenefits can be expected to include:

• Significant reduction in design man-hours due to the availability ofinformation via AVEVA NET and the major productivity gains achievablewith AVEVA Marine

• The ability to execute late-emerging design changes in the light ofspecification changes arising from changes in technical, threat,geopolitical or other circumstances

• The ability to measure project progress and the status of objects indesigning, material acquisition, etc. and to obtain feedback fromactual production

• Large productivity gains in production by optimising design anddeliverables to suit the selected shipyard’s facilities, technologies andworking practices

• The ability to use integrated laser scanning technology to verify the as-built status against the as-designed definition, ensuring geometricaccuracy and completeness of construction

• Providing the data and documents needed for the efficient handoverand commissioning of the warship Applying these technologies to arefit or conversion, additional benefits include:

• Laser scanning will enable accurate, detailed, inexpensive and rapiddefinition of current vessel as-built design status, including all inservice modifications

• Bringing the laser data into AVEVA Marine enables a clash-free redesignto be completed efficiently and all necessary output deliverables to begenerated

• AVEVA NET may be used to collect and link all of the documents relevantto the refit or conversion

• Project output documents may be efficiently issued and managed byAVEVA NET The capabilities and benefits described in this paper areavailable now to support the most efficient new design, refit,conversion and life extension of every type of warship.

AVEVA believes the information in this publication is correct as of its publication date. As part of continued product development, such information issubject to change without prior notice and is related to the current software release. AVEVA is not responsible for any inadvertent errors. All productnames mentioned are the trademarks of their respective holders. © Copyright 2010 AVEVA Solutions Limited. All rights reserved. AR/NA/10.

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AcknowledgementThis paper has been prepared with the assistance of severaltechnology specialists within AVEVA and the active encouragement ofsenior professionals in naval procurement and shipbuilding, whomconfidentiality precludes their being acknowledged by name.

Author’s BiographyRoy Metcalfe MSc. Naval Architecture and Shipbuilding Productionfrom the University of Strathclyde. In 1963 Roy started anapprenticeship in UK shipbuilding, eventually becoming a shipyarddirector. Following a period of shipbuilding application consultancyfor a US CAD/CAM company, he joined Tribon Solutions in 1994 and,since its acquisition by AVEVA in 2004, is now responsible for marinebusiness development.