International Journal of Maritime Engineering

Beyond Navigational Situation Awareness: Developing and Evaluating Situation Awareness Support System for Remote Engine Room Monitoring at the Future Shore Control Centre

changhun han — 2025-08-29

Remote operation offers multiple benefits as a viable transitional phase toward autonomous ships but also introduces situation awareness problems as identified from two feasibility studies: MUNIN and AAWA. However, it appears that situation awareness and its support systems are yet limited to visual and navigational awareness. This between-subjects study examined the effects of information organisation on situation awareness and fault detection performance of twenty-four marine engineers during engine room monitoring. The study identified better situation awareness and fault detection performance with cognitive support in information processing during challenging monitoring tasks. However, this effect appears to be mitigated during less demanding tasks. The overall fault detection rates across all trials remained at thirty-six per cent, albeit a single ship was monitored. With the prospect of a high workload at the future shore control centre, information organisation will be necessary to cultivate adequate situation awareness for engine room remote operators.

Numerical Simulation of the Dynamics of a Fishing Vessel Running in Stern Quartering Seas with Trapped Water on Deck

Shinya Masamoto — 2026-02-27

The transverse stability of a Japanese purse seiner running in stern quartering waves is investigated using a surge–sway–yaw–roll numerical model. Most Japanese purse seiners have an extended low weather deck surrounded by high bulwarks, which can trap water when the ship runs in high waves. This trapped water on the deck is also taken into account in the numerical study. The results are compared with the results from an existing free-running model experiment executed by two of the authors. As a result, if the water ingress and egress are explicitly modelled, better agreement between the numerical simulation and model experiment are realized. It is also confirmed that raising the aft deck to ensure reserve buoyancy can contribute to a reduction of the roll amplitude in stern quartering waves.

Particle Image Velocimetry: Experimental Flow Visualisation for Wind-Assisted Ship Wings and Yacht Sails

Jean-Baptiste R. G. Souppez — 2025-06-24

Wind-assisted ships and racing yachts employ highly cambered profiles to maximise performance. However, their complex aerodynamics governed by flow separation remains to be fully understood. Particle image velocimetry (PIV), performed in water tunnels, may lead to breakthroughs, provided fundamental spatial and temporal resolution limitations are overcome. Consequently, force measurements and flow visualisation were undertaken on circular arcs and yacht sails to ascertain the viability of this experimental approach. The results show that (i) a linear blockage correction can be devised; (ii) a blockage-independent critical Reynolds number and critical angle of attack exist; and (iii) a force crisis occurs because of the suppressed relaminarisation of the boundary layer downstream of the leading-edge separation bubble. Ultimately, PIV in water tunnels is shown to be a pertinent methodology. These findings provide novel insights into the aerodynamics of wind-assisted ships and yachts and may contribute to improving their performance by design.

Towards Data-Driven Fuel Consumption Model Transferability Between Sister Vessels: A Case Study Using Tuna Purse Seiners

Yi Zhou — 2026-02-27

Fuel Oil Consumption (FOC) represents a significant portion of a fishing vessel’s operating costs, often exceeding 50%. Accurately forecasting FOC during the voyage planning stage is crucial but challenging for optimizing routes and supporting decision-making systems aimed at fuel-saving. Data-driven models have shown excellent performance in FOC prediction. However, gathering the necessary data for these models is expensive and time-consuming. Even though, the applicability of FOC model derived from one vessel to predict FOC for another vessel has received limited research attention. This paper investigates the performance in predicting FOC for an unseen tuna purse seiner, using a two-stage model trained on metocean and operational data, from Copernicus and sensors installed on her similar vessel, respectively. By considering the engine performance modifications, the two-stage model trained on the similar vessel achieves high mean accuracies (over 94%) in predicting FOC for the unseen vessel.