The ocean is an unforgiving environment. The sea itself is the main challenge for maritime design. Waves, the surf zone, currents, and wind all come together in an incompressible fluid, whether it’s on the surface or below.

Products designed and prototypes taken to the sea must be ready for those challenges and be able to overcome the dynamics of a harsh, deep ocean environment. Traditionally, a scaled-down model would be built based on basic maritime calculations and then tested in a tow tank to validate designs before constructing a full-size prototype. However, the size of water molecules doesn’t change, which means the interactions observed in a tow tank don’t match behaviors with full-size designs in the real world.

To combat the challenges of the sea, PacMar Technologies uses Simcenter STAR-CCM+ to create high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of its products in different sea states prior to developing a full-size prototype. PacMar Technologies is an early adopter of every STAR-CCM+ release and often pushes its code to the limits. Applied CAx support is able to fill in the gaps when documentation is lagging to help PacMar Technologies take full advantage of its investment in its software tools.

By leveraging STAR-CCM+ for virtual product design, PacMar Technologies creates precise prototypes for its customers. These advanced simulations decrease costs by reducing the need for multiple physical prototypes before final manufacturing. Additionally, PacMar Technologies has reduced the time needed in traditional tow tanks compared to the typical maritime industry because of the accuracy of the designs.

Even with its success with STAR-CCM+, PacMar Technologies faces challenges with this software because it is constantly pushing the code to its limits. PacMar Technologies leveraged Applied CAx’s experience with STAR CCM+ code to navigate these challenges and find solutions. “By using tools like STAR-CCM+ we’ve been able to innovate in the marine industry,” Yamashita said. “Applied CAx provides different kinds of applications and engineering tools as they’ve gotten to know our needs, which has enabled us even further.”