The first fruits of a digital partnership between Bureau Veritas and French aerospace-to-automotive group Dassault were unveiled at a special press event held in London earlier this week.

The classification society will be using the 3DExperience platform of software specialist Dassault Systèmes to introduce a powerful 3D modelling tool which can be linked to BV’s VeriSTAR suite of calculation tools, thereby accelerating the design review process.

“Ship designers, shipyards, shipowners and offshore operators are going to benefit from major time and cost savings as we move our entire design and plan approval onto this new digital platform,” said Philippe Donche-Gay, evp of BV Marine & Offshore Division.

The class society gave the example of a pilot project undertaken by Chinese design unit SDARI (part of CSSC) on two new tanker designs, where use of the new tool had resulted in time savings of 21% in creating a 3D model and 24% in creating a Finite Element Model.

“We now only have to build one model and we do not have to create multiple data sets to use different tools for hull strength, stability and other vital calculations,” explained Donche-Gay. “We also improve traceability in-house as there is only one data entry.”

The new process can also be used to form a “digital twin” of a vessel or floating platform, he added, which will then be used to facilitate maintenance and repair or conversion decisions throughout its lifetime.

As someone who began their career in software rather than marine engineering, the BV Maritime & Offshore boss is ideally placed to position the French classification society in the vanguard of the digital revolution - which has finally gained a foothold in the maritime sphere thanks to the coming availability of broadband at sea via satellite links (as well as close to shore via mobile devices), he explained.

Spearheading BV’s immediate past chairmanship of the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS), it was Donche-Gay who pioneered the initiative that has led to IACS setting up a new Cyber Panel to address matters relating to maritime software rather than hardware.

And within the wider context of BV’s testing, inspection and certification activities, where it only accounts for some 10% of overall business, it is the Marine & Offshore Division that has been entrusted with the task of launching a ‘Digital Transformation’ programme that later will be applied across the whole group.

Modelling of a suezmax tanker by SDARI