MATritime: mathematics for the energy transition in sea shipping

At sea, the energy wasted by transport vessels is multifactorial. It is notably due to the complexity of the ship and its materials, to the difficulty of predicting their behavior on the water and in the face of meteorological phenomena (which today represent a 15 to 50% standard deviation in consumption, depending on the severity of conditions), and to the hazards specific to the marine environment. In addition, these losses are associated with the uncertainties inherent in future propulsion systems. 

Led by Olivier Le Maître, Director of Research at CNRS and member of the joint CNRS - Inria - École Polytechnique PLATON team, the MATritime joint laboratory aims to develop holistic modeling of all uncertainties (environmental, characterization, ship modeling), right from the design stage and throughout the life of the ships. Relying on advanced numerical simulation technologies combining physical and statistical models, MATritime will develop numerical approaches that can be applied to the various steps towards carbon neutrality:

- in the short term, optimization of existing ship components, 

- in the mid-term, the robust design of conventional ships, 

- in the long term, the robust design of ships using new propulsion systems.

At the same time, to support the digitization of the maritime world and prepare future tools for operational issues (optimization of missions, routes, maintenance operations, etc.), the project will also explore the creation of digital twins of ships, integrating data measured during navigation to optimize models for predicting vessel performance. 

By bringing together mathematical researchers and hands-on naval engineer-architects, MATritime is betting on multidisciplinarity to meet the challenges of a more sustainable, greener and more robust maritime industry.

Dominique Rossin, Director of Teaching and Research at École polytechnique, commented: “École polytechnique is delighted with this fruitful collaboration between our joint Platon team with Inria and CNRS, which is carrying out outstanding work on the quantification of uncertainties in numerical modeling and optimization, and Bañulsdesign, a well-known company in the fields of naval architecture and maritime engineering.

This joint laboratory is a large-scale project, given the contemporary challenges facing the marine industry, such as decarbonization and autonomization. The need to control uncertainty and risk implies the creation of digital tools for ship design, monitoring and operation, to increase the accuracy of their static and dynamic models. École Polytechnique hopes that this project will become a flagship in terms of modeling and predicting hazards in the marine world, and in decision support.”

Find out more:

Platon is a joint project team with CNRS, École Polytechnique and Inria, housed at École Polytechnique's Center for Applied Mathematics. Created in 2020, Platon has three permanent researchers and a dozen PhD and post-doctoral students conducting research into the treatment of uncertainties in scientific computing for engineering and simulation. Their expertise ranges from uncertainty modeling to decision-making, including sensitivity analysis, model calibration and the associated algorithmic and high-performance computing aspects. The team has forged numerous industrial and academic partnerships.

Bañulsdesign is a company founded by Renaud Bañuls in 2009, specializing in naval architecture for sailboats, particularly racing sailboats. For several years now, bañulsdesign has also been providing its expertise in the maritime industry to leading companies for the optimization of ships and their routes. Bañulsdesign is also initiator of the “Share the Ocean” consortium in collaboration with the PELAGIS observatory for the prevention of collisions with marine megafauna.

Find the original article on the Inria website: here (in French)